Jose Ramirez ekes by Jose Zepeda by majority decision to retain the WBC title
In making the second defense of the WBC junior welterweight title, Jose Ramirez came out flat against #14 ranked Jose Zepeda.
In the opening round, the champion did next to nothing as his southpaw challenger came out behind his jab successfully establishing distance and dictating the pace.
The challenger continued his early success by upping his punch activity. Shooting his jab to the head and body would allow him to start landing his straight and overhand left. The early rounds were all Zepeda as the champion looked to find some sort of rhythm.
Ramirez didn’t pick up the action until the middle rounds. In round four, the champion suffered a cut over his right eye due to a clash of heads. Ramirez started zeroing in on Zepeda’s body in the fifth round with success, trying to slow down his surprisingly elusive opponent.
This marked arguably the champions first winning round. This is where Ramirez would turn it up a notch!
In an exciting eighth round, both men landed some punishing blows. Ramirez appeared to stun Zepeda near the end of the round. However, the challenger would come back strong; landing some hard left-hands that stunned the champion as the bell rang.
Zepeda seemed to be on cruise control early in the fight, but stamina issues seemed to kick in. The well conditioned champion took full advantage by increasing his punch volume. All of his shots may not have landed, however, he showed to be the busier fighter in the latter rounds.
The challenger did bounced back strong in the eleventh round; landing punishing shots to the head of the champion. However, in a twelfth round that he badly needed, he wasn’t able to build on the momentum of the previous round.
Instead, stamina would be the culprit of low output. Additionally, it rendered Zepeda helpless as Ramirez stole the round with a flurry during the last ten seconds.
All three judges would ensure the champion retained his title with scorecards of 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112. 3kingsboxing.com scored the fight 115-113 for Ramirez.
The champion improves his record to 24-0 with 16 knockouts and successfully makes his second title defense.
In the post fight interview, he claims to want to unify the division against one of the other champions. If he cannot soon, he will look to move north into a STACKED welterweight division!
By: Jerrell Fletcher
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