By Craig Daly: In a real surprise, Erickson ‘The Hammer’ Lubin (26-2, 18 KOs) pulled off an upset against previously unbeaten highly ranked 154-lb contender Jesus Ramos (20-1, 16 KOs), winning a 12 round unanimous decision to pick up the WBC Diamond title on Saturday night in the co-feature on the Canelo Alvarez vs. Jermell Charlo card on Showtime PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ramos fought too cautiously, walking forward behind a high guard, allowing Lubin to land counter shots, and it made it difficult to score the rounds in his favor. He wasn’t letting his hands go in many of the rounds, particularly in rounds 9 through 12.
The judges’ scores:
- 115-113
- 116-112
- 117-111
Lubin looked cautious in the first quarter of the fight, not wanting to open up for fear of being nailed by one of the younger & stronger 22-year-old Ramo’s big punches.
By the sixth, the 27-year-old Lubin started gaining more confidence because Ramos was shelling up and wasn’t throwing enough punches. When he did throw, he was open to counters from Lubin due to his slow hand speed.
Ramos landed some nice shots in the seventh and eighth round, but there weren’t many of them. Even when Ramos had Lubin against the ropes, he wasn’t throwing enough punches because he looked scared of getting clipped a counter.
Lubin took control of the fight in round nine, taking advantage of Ramos not throwing enough. It’s unclear whether Ramos was exhausted, injured, or afraid of being hit with something big.
For the most part, Ramos looked intimidated, like the moment was too much for him, and wasn’t ready for an experienced veteran like Lubin.
Sebastian ‘The Towering Inferno’ Fundora had shown Lubin no respect last year, walking him down and nailing him with shots, disfiguring his face badly enough to where the fight had to be stopped in the ninth round. Ramos didn’t show the same bravery that Fundora did, and that’s why he lost tonight.
Ramos is going to have to change the way he fights if he wants to climb his way back because he’s not going to beat the top contenders in the division if he’s shelling up, not letting his hands go like we saw tonight.
If this had been Tim Tszyu or Brian Mendoza in the ring with Ramos tonight, he likely would have been knocked out because those guys would have taken advantage of his low punch output to tee off on him.