By Mark Eisner: Former WBC & WBO light welterweight champion Jose Ramirez (28-1, 18 KOs) stopped former IBF lightweight champion Richard Commey (30-5-1, 27 KOs) by an 11th round knockout in a tougher than expected in WBC 140lb title eliminator on Saturday night at the Save Mart Arena in Fresno, California.
Coming off a one-year layoff and several poor performances, Ramirez dropped the older past his prime 36-year-old Commey twice in the 11th round to get the stoppage.
In the first knockdown in the eleventh, Ramirez hit Commey with a short right uppercut on the inside that hurt him badly, and then he followed up with a left-hand rabbit punch to that put him down.
After Commey got back up, Ramirez threw him to the canvas using a professional wrestling move. The referee warned Ramirez after that.
In the second knockdown, Ramirez landed a left to the body that resulted in Commey taking a knee and was counted out by referee Jack Reiss. Thee time of the stoppage was at 2:31 of the round.
Undercard results
- WBA female minimumweight champion Seniesa “Super Bad” Estrada (24-0, 9 KOs) defeated unbeaten WBC champ Tina Rupprecht (12-1-1, 3 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision. The scores were 100-90, 100-90, and 100-90.
- Heavyweight prospect Antonio Mireles (7-0, 6 KOs) defeated Patrick Mailata (6-2, 3 KOs) by an unimpressive six round split decision. The chubby 321-lb Mailata badly hurt the 6’9″ Mirelas in the third round, dropping him with seconds remaining in the round. Luckily for Mirelas, the time expired after he got back to his feet, and he survived the round. Mailata gassed himself out in that round and wasn’t able to finish the job in the job against a still-hurt Mirelas in the fourth. From that point on, Mirelas dominated the action to win the fight. The scores were 57-56, 57-56 for Mirelas, and 57-56 for Mailata. Mirelas looked incredibly poor throughout, and it’s difficult to imagine him going anywhere in the sport.
- Undefeated lightweight Raymond Muratalla (17-0, 14 KOs) had to get up off the deck in round one to come back to stop Humberto Galindo (14-3-1, 11 KOs) in the ninth round. The hard-hitting Muratalla knocked Galindo down with a shot to the midsection in the ninth round to get the knockout. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:40.
Preview: This fight will show whether the 30-year-old Ramirez still hs anything left after a year of inactivity and lackluster performances in his last three contests.
The 140-lb division has improved dramatically since Ramirez held two titles in the weight class, and there are better fighters than him now, a lot, and it’s unclear what Top Rank is going to do with him.
Like Teofimo Lopez, Ramirez has gone downhill and is no longer capable of beating the best.
With the right careful match-making, Ramirez could potentially win another world title if he fights a weak champion or for one of the vacant belts against a lesser contender.
Unfortunately, you can’t throw Raamirez in with someone good like Subriel Matias, Regis Prograis, or Richardson Hitchins and expect him to win.
Top Rank, the promoters for this event, picked a bad night to stage the card, as they’re competing with the mega-fight between David Benavidez and Caleb Plant, which is taking place tonight at the same time but on Showtime PPV.
Ramirez vs. Commey, how to watch?
Boxing fans can watch Ramirez battle Commey on ESPN, ESPN Deportes & ESPN+, with the event beginning t 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT at the Save Mart Arena in Fresno, California.
“Your first fight back after Josh Taylor was a year ago against Jose Pedraza. You won a unanimous decision 8 to 4, according to all three judges. How do you rate that performance?” said Max Kellerman to Max On Boxing on ESPN, talking to former WBC & WBO light welterweight champion Jose Ramirez.
“I give myself a good B because I was coming off my first loss and, for the first time, seeing some adversity that I’d never seen in the sport of boxing from the outside of the ring.
“So I was being a little cautious, but he wasn’t [fighting aggressively],” Ramirez said about the former two-division world champion Jose Pedraza in their fight in March 2022.
“I could tell from his body language that he was just trying to survive, and I was trying to win the fight and win one round at a time. I feel like Jose Ramirez is back,” said Ramirez.
“So you haven’t been very active the last few years, but you have been fighting tough opponents,” said Max Kellerman to Ramirez. “In 2020, Viktor Postol.
“In 2021, [Josh] Taylor. In 2022, Jose Pedraza. So the level of opposition is there, but do you feel you’ve been active enough to be at your very best at this stage?” said Kellerman.
“That’s a great point. I feel like we’re all affected by the pandemic,” said Ramirez. “Yeah, since 2019, I’ve never been this inactive in the sport of boxing, and I’m still facing the best, even with the fact that I’m fighting once a year,” said Ramirez.
“That’s not the best way to do it. I never did it like that all the way to becoming a unified world champion. I was very active, fighting two to three times a year. So that’s the goal this year. To get back in the ring.
What time is Ramirez vs. Commey?
The main portion of the Ramirez vs. Commey card will begin at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT on ESPN, ESPN Deportes & ESPN+ from the Save Mart Arena in Fresno, California.
“I think people are so used to seeing me in big fights. They expect me to fight Regis Prograis. They expect me to fight all the other world champions out there because they’re so used to seeing that from me, and I don’t blame them because that’s who I’ve been.
“It’s always good for me to stay active, and I think Richard Commey is the perfect fight for me to [get the rust out] because he’s still a high-level fighter that has fought great champions.
“He’s a very active fighter, so I think that’s a good comeback fight for me to get back in the game and hopefully fight two or three times this year,” said Ramirez.
Besides Josh Taylor, Ramirez hasn’t been fighting the best at 140 in the last four years. You can’t consider Viktor Postol, Jose Pedraza and Maurice Hooker the best.
If Ramirez wanted to make the claim of him having fought the best at 140 during the last four years, he would have had to fight these killers:
- Subriel Matias
- Richardson Hitchins
- Regis Prograis
- Ryan Garcia
- Liam Paro
- Alberto Puello
- Teofimo Lopez
- Sandor Martin
- Gary Antuanne Russell
- Arnold Barboza
- Jack Catterall
- Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero
- Batyr Akhmedov
- Brandun Lee
- Steve Spark
- Montana Love
You can argue strongly that Jose Ramirez would lose to most, if not all, of those fighters. He’d have a good chance of beating for or five of those guys, but he’d be over his head against most of them, particularly against Prograis, Russell, Garcia, Teofimo, Barboza, Paro, Matias, Lee, and Hitchins.
Highly ranked light welterweight contender Jose Ramirez (27-1, 17 KOs) will be looking to dust the cobwebs off his game when he battles Richard Commey (30-4-1, 27 KOs) in a WBC 140lb title eliminator tonight. The two fighters headline on ESPN, ESPN Deportes & ESPN+ card beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT from the Save Mart Arena in Fresno, California.