Home Boxing News Jose Carlos Ramirez outpoints Viktor Postol to keep Josh Taylor fight alive

Jose Carlos Ramirez outpoints Viktor Postol to keep Josh Taylor fight alive

Jose Ramirez
Jose Carlos Ramirez vs Viktor Postol. Photo credit: Mikey Williams/Top Rank

WBC and WBO junior welterweight champion Jose Carlos Ramirez 26-0 (17) has admitted he performed below his best in his 12-round majority decision win over Viktor ‘The Iceman’ Postol 31-3 (12) at ‘The Bubble’ at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night.

The 28-year-old Californian started slowly and struggled to deal with Postol’s jab but warmed to the task by the middle rounds.

Not to be outdone, Postol came back strongly in the last three frames.

Judges Tim Cheatham and Steve Weisfeld both had the fight for Ramirez by scores of 115-113 and 116-112 respectively, while judge Dave Moretti couldn’t split them with a score of 114-114.

According to CompuBox, Ramirez outlanded Postol 156-147 in total punches. Postol was the busier fighter, out-throwing Ramirez 668-556 but Ramirez was more accurate, landing 38.6% of his punches.

“I went in there a little too cold, you know?” Ramirez said. “I impressed myself. I’m much stronger than most guys think.

“I just gotta not lose confidence in myself and stick to what I do best and box, let my hands go and not hesitate too much. I think there was a little bit of hesitation throughout the fight.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been in the ring. There have been a lot of things that have happened in my personal life. It’s been such a long training camp. I think [I went] through the routine instead of, ‘let’s fight’.

“I felt like I was just in a sparring session. I think I could’ve made the fight a lot easier in my favour, but we live and we learn. This was an amazing experience. I’m just happy I got the win.”

Top Rank chairman Bob Arum praised Ramirez for his performance.

“It was a good fight, but both men were impacted by going through three training camps and the whole situation with COVID-19,” he said. “That being said, I thought Jose clearly won the fight.”

With the win Ramirez keeps his hopes alive of a four-belt unification bout against WBA and IBF champion Josh ‘The Tartan Tornado’ Taylor 16-0 (12) who must first get past hard-hitting Thai Apinun Khongsong 16-0 (13) in London on September 26.

On the undercard undefeated junior welterweight contender Arnold Barboza Jr 24-0 (10) outclassed former world title challenger Tony Luis 29-4 (10) over 10.

Barboza controlled the fight with the only blemish being a point deduction in the sixth round for a low blow. All three judges scored the bout 99-90.

Next up for Barboza could be a fight with stablemate Alex Saucedo 30-1 (19) on the Vasiliy Lomachenko vs Teofimo Lopez undercard on October 17.

“To be honest, I haven’t fought since last November. I haven’t went 10 rounds in a while. He was a tough guy. I needed the rounds,” Barboza said.

“I showed a little bit of what I’ve been working on in the corner, going southpaw and all that. I give my performance a ‘B’. I wasn’t really satisfied because I didn’t get the stoppage. It happens.

“Now I got the rust out. I feel like I’m ready for the next step. I want Saucedo. I think me and him would be a great fight. I know he wants it. I want it, so we could probably get it on soon. If he’s ready, I’ll be ready.”

Exciting welterweight Elvis ‘The Dominican Kid’ Rodriguez 9-0-1 (9) scored a highlight reel third-round knockout of Cody Wilson 9-3 (6).

Rodriguez had Wilson on the deck in the opening round one and laid him out for good at 1:03 of the third.

Lightweight Raymond ‘Danger’ Muratalla 10-0 (8) scored a seventh-round TKO over Cesar Valenzuela 15-7-1 (5).

Both boxers were on the canvas in the opening two rounds before Muratalla came on strong to punished Valenzuela before the fight was stopped at 2:24 of the seventh.

Bantamweight Gabriel Muratalla 5-0 (3) outpointed Justice Bland 2-1 over four but not before being dropped in the first. Bland was also deducted a point for hitting Muratalla while he was down. Scores were 38-36 across the board.

Middleweight Javier Martinez 2-0 pitched a shutout over Rance Ward (4-2-1, 2 KOs) in a six-rounder.