It was an easy nights work for the former Bantamweight champion Jessie Magdaleno (25-1, 18 KOs) as he easily outpointed Rico Ramos (30-5, 14 KOs) on March 23, 2019 at The Hanger in Costa Mesa, California.
It was Magdaleno’s first fight at Featherweight as he moved up to take this fight after his last fight–a loss against Isaac Dogboe. The win was dominant, but uneventful. The final scorecards read 97-93, 98-92 and 99-91 all in favor of Magdaleno. He also picked up a very small title in the vacant NABF Featherweight crown.
From the beginning of the contest Magdaleno came out very strong. The first punch he landed stunned Ramos and forced him to the ropes. Magdaleno unleashed more shots on his man, but Ramos managed to hold on and recover well.
That was truly the only time that Ramos was in trouble of being stopped. Magdaleno spent the rest of the contest just simply outboxing his opponent. Ramos had very little offensive output as he just didn’t let his hands go.
As each round went by Ramos’ chances of winning were getting slimmer and slimmer. His coaches implored him to force the action and press for a stoppage as a win on the scorecards just wasn’t likely. Unfortunately, Ramos just couldn’t pull the trigger and Magdaleno took full advantage.
The skills of Magdaleno have never been in question, but he has had issues with staying active. He fought only once in both 2017 and 2018. Activity is what he needs in order to show that he still is a major threat to everyone in his new division.
The easy win he picked up over Ramos won’t tell us much in terms of if he is ready to challenge the elite at Featherweight, but time will certainly tell us where he currently stands.