WBA cruiserweight champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez (47-1, 30 KOs) was too busy, too expert, and too cell for the heavy-handed WBO champion Chris Billiam-Smith (29-2, 13 KOs), beating him by a grueling 12-round unanimous resolution on Saturday evening at The Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The battle got here right down to Ramirez, 33, utilizing his trademark high-volume combating type and his nifty footwork to overwhelm Billiam-Smith. It might have been nearer if Billiam-Smith might deal with Ramirez’s motion, which wouldn’t have been laborious for a fighter adept at coping with that. Billiam-Smith was too sluggish to maneuver his ft to stick with Ramirez.
Billiam-Smith was minimize within the fourth from what seemed to be a proper hand from Ramirez. Though the minimize was dominated to have been attributable to a conflict of heads, it didn’t look that manner.
The scores:
116-112
116-112
116-113
Ramirez stated that after the battle, he desires to battle IBF champion Jai Opetaia subsequent. Nevertheless, that’ll be as much as his promoters at Golden Boy and His Excellency Turki Alalshikh in the event that they wish to go in that path. If not Opetaia, Ramirez can face WBC champion Noel Mikaelyan in a unification, after which battle Opetaia for the undisputed if he makes it to that match.
William Zepeda Beats Tevin Farmer
#1 ranked light-weight contender William Zepeda (32-0, 27 KOs) beat Tevin Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs) by a tougher-than-expected 10-round cut up resolution to win the WBC interim 135-lb title.
Zepeda was surprisingly dropped by a left-hand from Farmer in spherical 4 from a shot that he didn’t see firm. He wasn’t harm and acquired up and continued to regulate the spherical, but it surely introduced a short little bit of drama to the competition.
The DAZN commentators made an enormous manufacturing in regards to the knockdown and had been giving Farmer much more credit score than he deserved. It was a one-sided battle for probably the most half, and the flash knockdown by Farmer was his solely brilliant level within the battle.
Aside from that, Zepeda was on his bottom, burying him with exercise, forcing him to spoil by holding always, and limiting him to temporary stuff, a lot of it within the final 10 seconds of each spherical. Farmer was utilizing that previous trick to impress the judges and attempt to steal the rounds after being outworked for the primary 2:50 seconds by Zepeda.
The scores had been 95-94, 95-94 for Zepeda, and 95-94 for Farmer. Zepeda will now battle WBC light-weight champion Shakur Stevenson in February, supplied the match might be negotiated and there aren’t any accidents.
The photographs that Farmer took tonight from Zepeda, it’s unlikely Shakur might stand up to the identical quantity of abuse. I’ve by no means seen Farmer take the type of laborious head and physique photographs that he absorbed from Zepeda in any of his fights. You possibly can inform that Farmer actually wanted this win, and he gave all of it he might.
Even after the battle, Farmer was nonetheless in denial about his loss, saying he ought to have gained. Nah, Farmer, you didn’t win, and also you’re fortunate the judges didn’t give Zepeda credit score for all of the physique photographs he was hitting you with since you would have misplaced 9 rounds to at least one tonight. The judges clearly weren’t giving Zepeda credit score for his photographs to the midsection; they had been solely dialed in when counting the headshots.
Arnold Barboza Jr. Victorius Over Jose Ramirez
Former unified mild welterweight champion Jose Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs) regarded previous tonight, shedding to unbeaten #1-ranked Arnold Barboza Jr. (31-0, 11 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous resolution in a WBO 140-lb title eliminator.
Barboza was in management the entire step of the way in which, utilizing his spearing photographs to select off Ramirez to outbox him. Ramirez tried to make a late rally, however Barboza Jr shut him down together with his jab and one-two mixture punching.
The scores had been 97-93, 96-94, and 96-94. The loss for Ramirez is the second of his profession. He was crushed three years in the past by Josh Taylor by a 12-round resolution in a unification battle, and he’d been taking tune-ups ever since.
