Former unified junior welterweight champion Jose ‘Jaguar’ Ramirez 29-1 (18) survived a scare to outhustle former two-weight world champion Rances ‘Kid Blast’ Barthelemy 30-3-1 (15) over 12 rounds at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California on Saturday night.
Boxing for the first time in more than a year, the 31-year-old Ramirez took control of the bout early on, walking down Barthelemy and outworking him.
In the third round Barthelemy opened up with a series of shots that prompted Ramirez to lunge in for a clinch before finding himself on the canvas. Cuban Barthelemy, 38, landed a few more blows to Ramirez while he was on his knees. This drew the ire of referee Jack Reiss, who sternly warned Barthelemy but didn’t rule a knockdown.
Ramirez was a little gun-shy for the next few rounds and Barthelemy stunned him again in the sixth, but Ramirez managed to survive this shaky moment to wrest back control of the fight. Through the back half of the fight Ramirez hustled while Barthelemy looked for the one big shot to turn the fight in his favour.
It never came and Ramirez was awarded the victory by scores of 119-109, 119-109 and 118-110.
“I felt great coming in, overly excited. I showed some good skills,” said Ramirez.
“I dominated most of the rounds. There was only one round where he could’ve scored a knockdown, but a lot of the fight he didn’t throw a lot of punches and he got overly excited.
“I think that was my mistake for being distracted in that moment of the round and keeping him in the fight. Overall, I’m just thankful I got the win.”
Ramirez admitted he could have done better, saying his lack of recent ring activity hampered his performance.
“It wasn’t the best performance of my career,” Ramirez said. “I got too excited. I could hear people call my name, and I saw people I recognised. I got a little too distracted.
“I got hit with one punch and he got motivated. If that hadn’t happened, I think I would have broken his spirit. I fought twice in the last three years, so I was a little rusty. But hey, you live, you learn.”
Ramirez has boxed three times since losing his WBC and WBO 140-pound belts to Scottish southpaw and then-WBA and IBF champion Josh Taylor 19-1 (13) by majority decision in May 2021.
Those wins have come against solid opposition in the form of Jose Pedraza, Richard Commey and now Barthelemy, all of whom have held version of the world title at lightweight.
The new Golden Boy Promotions signing, who was previously promoted by Top Rank, wants a world title shot next. Ramirez is currently ranked WBO number four, WBC number nine and IBF number 11, where the world champions are Teofimo Lopez 20-1 (13), Devin Haney 31-1 (15) and Subriel Matias 20-1 (20) respectively.
