Former two-belt champion Jose Ramirez returned from his first professional loss with a unanimous decision victory over Jose Pedraza in Fresno, CA on Friday night. The WBC super lightweight eliminator was a contest of Pedraza’s tactical sharp-shooting vs. Ramirez’ aggression and superior power with the judges ruling in favor of Ramirez by identical scores of 116-112.
InTheCorner.Net had it 115-113 for Ramirez.
In his first time back in the ring since losing his WBC and WBO 140-lb titles to Josh Taylor in May of 2021, Ramirez (27-1, 17 KOs) came out sharp and clearly had the strength advantage. Pedraza (29-4, 14 KOs), a former champion at super featherweight and lightweight, fought from a southpaw stance and used excellent head movement and counter shots to negate Ramirez’ aggression. Through six rounds the fight was very close and Pedraza had near-perfect timing with his left hand as Ramirez rushed in or backed away from an attack.
The exchanges tended to favor Ramirez’ heavier hands and his pressing attack often looked like he was controlling the action. But Pedraza was tactically brilliant with his timing and slick movement and many of the rounds were hard to score.
Jose Ramirez rose to the stiff challenge and earned a clear victory with the official scores being very reasonable. It was clear that a slick lefty still gives him trouble and is able to land solid shots consistently. It was Pedraza’s fifth fight at 140 but if he had packed more power into his shots he could very well have done the kind of damage that Josh Taylor did last year in scoring two knockdowns.
UNDERCARD
While Ramirez was the headliner and hometown hero, another local fighter made his professional debut on the undercard. Olympic silver medalist Richard Torrez Jr. stopped Allen Melson (6-4, 3 KOs) in two wild rounds. Torrez decked Melson in the first round, one of two times that Melson went down awkwardly. The second time, both corners thought referee Marcos Rosales waved off the fight but he was just signaling “no-knockdown.” The ring had to be cleared to finish the final seconds of round one. A headbutt left a cut near Torrez’ right eye and his first trip back to the stool as a pro required work from his cutman. Melson again came at Torrez with a sloppy attack in round two and got decked twice. Rosales called it off at 1:23.
Also…
Joet Gonzalez (25-2, 15 KOs) won by TKO9 over Jeo Santisima (21-4, 18 KOs)
Gabe Flores Jr. (21-1, 7 KOs) a MD10 over Abraham Montoya (20-3-1, 14 KOs)
Hector Tanajara Jr. (19-1-1, 5 KOs) and Miguel Contreras (11-1-1, 6 KOs) fought to a draw
Karlos Balderas (12-1, 11 KOs) stopped Aeilo Mesquita (20-7-1, 18 KOs) in two rounds
Javier Martinez (6-0, 2 KOs) UD6 over Donte Stubbs (6-4, 2 KOs)
Charlie Sheehy (2-0, 2 KOs) stopped Johnny Bernal (2-1, 2 KOs) with a TKO1
Antonio Mireles (3-0, 3 KOs) stopped Brandon Hughes (2-1, 2 KOs) in 2
