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Ramirez Shines, But Estrada Steals The Show In Fresno
By Igor Frank
Photos: Mikey Williams - Top Rank
Former super lightweight champion, Jose Ramirez
(28-1,18KO’S) scored a brutal 11th round knockout
victory over former lightweight champion from Ghana ,
Richard Commey (30-5-1,27KO’S) at the Savemart Center in
Fresno on Saturday night. ‘’It’s always hard after a
layoff, “said Ramirez post fight,” I had to go back to
being myself and start strong.” And start strong he did.
Fan favorite Jose Ramirez thrilled his fans by coming
out of the gate like a bull in the rodeo. Ramirez
trapped his opponent on the ropes and unleashed a
furious attack with reckless abandon. “I hurt him in the
first round,” said Ramirez, “but he is a tough guy. Big
shoutout to Commey and his team. He is a good warrior.”
However, it took a former champion 11 brutal rounds to
finish the job.
It was one way traffic for the first 3 rounds. In the
fourth, Commey landed several hard right hands which
didn’t seem to have any effect on Ramirez. Former
champion from Fresno continued to stock his prey,
ripping hard shots in close. It seemed that this fight
couldn’t go the distance, but all of a sudden we were in
rounds eight, nine and ten and Commey was still in the
fight and landing his share of shots. Things turned
around dramatically in the eleventh when Commey went
down ,not from any particular shot but from the
onslaught. The regal warrior from Africa got up and
fought valiantly, but went down again from the body shot
and couldn’t beat the count.
What’s next?” I want any world champion ,” exclaimed
Ramirez, “If Regis Prograis is serious about fighting we
can sit down and negotiate.”
Savemart Center in Fresno, California is a great venue
to host a night of professional boxing. 11,201 real fans
showed up on Saturday night to support their heroes.
Savvy fans of sweet science came out early to watch all
the preliminary fights, but no one came as early as a
Hall of Fame promoter, 91 years old, Bob Arum. That’s
probably why he gets the big bucks.
Minimum weight champion Seniesa “Super Bad” Estrada
(24-0,9KO’S) continued her ring dominance by unifying
WBA and WBC world titles with an impressive 10 rounds
unanimous decision victory over tough as nails former
champion from Germany, “Tiny”Tina Rupprecht
(12-1-1,3KO’S). All three judges scored the fight
identically ,100-90.
Dainty Estrada didn’t look “Super Bad “until the opening
bell rang and her lightning fast combinations started
flying. Seniesa is a complete fighter, her combinations
are fluid and impressive to watch. She seamlessly
switches stances, but what impressed me the most was her
attention to the body work. However, her opponent from
Germany didn’t come all the way across the pond just for
the paycheck. Tiny Tina used her physicality and pressed
the action when she could, but she was no match for
super fast Superbad Estrada who dominated the fight from
the beginning to the end.
“This training camp was more mentally tough than it was
physically, “said Estrada after she had her hand raised
in victory;” I showed it in the ring by sticking to my
game plan and using my jab.” Jab she used along with
fluid virtuoso combinations that kept raining down on
her opponent from all angles. She is a special talent,
and the crowd knew it.
"I want to tell the other champions at 105 pounds (Yokasta
Valle) that I am the best in the division,” continued
Estrada:” and I know it. I want to prove it by becoming
undisputed.”
There is nothing like a possibility of upset to wet the
appetite of real boxing crowd. Ten round lightweight
tussle between highly touted Raymond Murattalla
(16-0,13ko’s) and Humberto Galindo(14-2-1,11ko’s)
featured just that kind of action. Betting favorite and
unbeaten Murattalla found himself in dire straits early,
seemingly being overwhelmed by hard charging Galindo,
who landed a short right hook to score a first round
knockdown. It didn’t get any better in the second stanza
for the undefeated prospect.
Murattalla finally got into the fight in the third and
started to return fire with conviction. He righted the
ship with a body shot in the fourth that sent his foe
crashing down on the canvas in grimace. Galindo got up
and continued to fight back, but he was no match for
more skilled and accurate Murattalla, who continued to
break his foe down and finally stopped him with another
well placed body shop in the 9th round.
The opening televised bout on ESPN was an exciting 6
rounds heavyweight brawl between two giants, 6.9 ,
Antonio Mireles and 321 pounds beast from Samoa, Patrick
Mialata. Both men swang for the fences from the opening
bell and reminded everyone why there is nothing like
heavyweight boxing. Samoan fighter did more damage early
and dropped undefeated Mireles in the third round.
Mireles regrouped and closed strong, thus winning a
controversial split decision on the judges’ scorecards.
The crowd didn’t agree with the decision .
In other action lightweight Charlie Sheehy(6-0,4KO’S)
defeated Angel Rebollar(6-2,3KO’S) via 6th rounds
unanimous decision.Light flyweights Jessie James
Guerrero(3-0-2,3KO’S) and Eduardo Alvarez(0-2-1) fought
a majority draw.
Junior welterweight Ricardo Ruvalcaba(8-0-1,7KO’S)
scored a first round knockout over Marco Antonio
Cardenas(9-8-1,4KO’S) and junior featherweight Subaru
Murata(4-0,4KO’S) scored a first round knockout over
Jose Negrete(2-2,2KO’S).
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