In what turned out to be a great fight, WBC Super Lightweight champion Jose Ramirez (24-0, 16 KOs) edged out Jose Zepeda (30-2, 25 KOs) by majority decision in the Top Rank on ESPN main event on Sunday, February 10, 2019.
Final scores for the contest were 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112, in favor of the champ Ramirez.
Zepeda came out of the gates very fast as he was landing a ton of shots early on. Ramirez just couldn’t get out of the way of the blows that were fired at him. Not only did Ramirez look poor defensively, but offensively he looked lackluster.
The champions signature pressure just didn’t have its normal effect. It was Zepeda who dominated most of the action for the first few rounds.
In the second half of the fight however, Ramirez got back to his normal self. Sensing he was down on the scorecards he began to land several hard shots on Zepeda that forced him back as the pressure he was trying to employ all night finally began to wear his opponent down.
Zepeda just couldn’t sustain his strong start and seemed to be fatiguing both mentally and physically as the bout continued.
The championship rounds is where Ramirez did his best work. The 12th and final round saw both men land plenty of heavy leather, but it was Ramirez who was clearly getting the better of the exchanges.
A combination by the champion pushed the challenger back to the ropes forcing him to hold on. Zepeda made it to the final bell and put up a great effort but it was the champion Ramirez who closed the contest extremely strong.
Zepeda came into this contest relatively unknown and really pushed the champion. Credit goes to Ramirez for weathering the attack of his opponent and coming alive in the end.
