CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Saturday’s mainevent at American Bank Center was intended to be a coming-out party for undefeated Mexican super middleweight titlist “El Zurdo” Gilberto Ramirez (37-0, 25 KOs), and it succeeded as such in large part because of promoter Top Rank’s expert matchmaking.
Ghanian Habib Ahmed (25-1, 17 KOs) took his half-fight beating like a well-whiskered toughman then surrendered right on time, or his corner did anyway, at 2:31 of round 6.
“I took control of the fight real quick,” said Ramirez immediately afterwards. “And my goal now is to unify all the titles.”
Before the match Ahmed was fond of rattling away names of famous Ghanaian prizefighters to those who had the temerity to wonder who the hell he was, but during the match he fought like no Ghanaian so much as Joshua Clottey, showing little offensive imagination, fighting only when generally cornered and looking exactly the way his dossier got read during introductions – “the undefeated WBO number-four ranked challenger in the world”.
Ramirez is very good and gorgeous too, we’re told, but he makes some odd choices – such as attempting to duck counters from a man at least five inches shorter than him. Too, there’s Ramirez’s dangerous gambit of throwing uppercut leads while moving forward, rarely a good idea, even on an opponent limited as Ahmed.
“I’m telling Top Rank I want to fight in Mexico,” Ramirez added. “In my hometown of Mazatlan.”
This was a showcase match and Ramirez treated it as such, looking dominant before a national American television audience on ESPN.
JERWIN ANCAJAS VS. ISRAEL GONZALEZ
Saturday’s co-main, Filipino junior bantamweight Jerwain Ancajas (27-1-1, 19 KOs) against Mexican Israel Gonzalez (20-2, 8 KOs) featured what might best be described as a lightweight, actually junior-bantamweight, rendition of Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, with Ancajas doing his imitative best to move slightly to his left, leap and blast, and Gonzalez having neither the quickness nor pop to dissuade him.
And unlike the last time Marquez and Pacquiao swapped fists, the Filipino won impressively by round-10 TKO.
This was a match that saw Gonzalez effective so long as he was in motion and tagged everytime he wasn’t. By round 4 there was a recurrent pattern: Gonzalez would bob his way in, flinch, feint, and gradually still his hands. Then he would freeze, flatfooted, and Ancajas would leap with a lefthand lead and tag him.
In the fifth Ancajas began to take over the match, outfighting and outfoxing Gonzalez, who found limited success only when jabbing his way in and testing the Filipino’s limited counterpunching prowess.
Through the middle rounds Ancajas’ speed and Gonzalez’s counterpunching partially neutralized one another, marking somewhat dull rounds Ancajas appeared to win in succession.
Having invested in left-cross stabs to Gonzalez’s body early, Ancajas was able to weather any punches Gonzalez landed after the ninth. Able to wade through Gonzalez’s punches Ancajas got audacious, and his audacity got rewarded.
Blasting Gonzalez with straight lefts, in homage to his hero Manny Pacquiao, Ancajas felled Gonzalez twice in round 10, the last time concussively enough to get the match waved-off at 1:50.
All told, it was Saturday’s most competitive match and marked an improvement in Ancajas’ prospects for stardom.
“‘Just be yourself, be patient’,” Ancajas said Pacquiao told him in a phone conversation before the fight. “‘Don’t put pressure on yourself’.”
From here the pressure to perform for Ancajas surely grows, and a deserved acclaim possibly awaits.
JESSE HART VS. THOMAS AWIMBONO
The evening’s singular punch belonged to Philadelphia super middleweight Jesse Hart (23-1, 19 KOs) who put a proper right uppercut on the lowered chin of overweight Ghanaian Thomas Awimbono (24-8-1, 20 KOs) and dropped him hard and early.
“I looked for the uppercut with the jab,” explained Hart. “The jab is everything. My coach told me not to look for the uppercut but to wait for it. As soon as I saw it . . .”
Awimbono, who missed weight widely and forced Hart to eat his way up to a catchweight and looked nowhere fit as his shredded opponent, rose unsteadily and collected another barrage before succumbing completely at 1:28 of round 1.
“I was mentally prepared,” Hart said about his looking sharper Saturday than in his last match. “Daddy, this is for you. I want to say, ‘Happy Birthday, Mom!’”
UNDERCARD
Saturday’s fifth match saw New York lightweight Teofimo Lopez (8-0, 6 KOs) remain undefeated by outboxing light-hitting journeymen Mexican Juan Pablo Sanchez (29-15, 14 KOs) in a match whose official cards went 60-54, 60-54 and 59-55. Despite being outgunned in every minute Sanchez nevertheless managed to open an ugly gash over Lopez’s eye with what Lopez declared a headbutt:
“Yeah, that’s a headbutt,” said Lopez. “He barely fucking hit me. He didn’t even hit me.”
Highly considered Top Rank super featherweight Gabe Flores (6-0, 5 KOs) made an impressive showing against Mexican Alex Solorio (4-3, 1 KO) in the evening’s penultimate undercard bout, stopping Solorio at 2:31 of the first round.
“Of all the young fighters Top Rank has,” said Flores afterwards. “I’m the best.”
The evening’s third match was a mismatch, as Australian super middleweight Rohan Murdock (22-1, 16 KOs) went right through Virginia’s Frank Filippone (23-7-1, 8 KOs), causing Filippone’s corner to stop the match after five rounds. Murdock looked solid if not particularly accurate, and Filippone was out of his depth from the opening round.
Before that Phoenix welterweight Jose Benavidez (26-0, 17 KOs) returned from a 20-month sabbatical to beatdown North Carolinian Matthew Strode (24-6, 9 KOs) and stop him at 2:21 of round 8. Benavidez, who was shot in the leg and told by a doctor he would need two years even to walk, looked nearly quick as fans remembered him, if not quite so sharp. The fight was a good one, Strode was awkward for a comeback opponent and took a punch well, and Benavidez knockedoff some of the rust he’ll need scrub in totality if he is to make a run at world champion Terence “Bud” Crawford, who watched from ringside.
Told Crawford was unimpressed by his showing, Benavidez said:
“(Crawford) needs to sit his ass down. I’ll fight him whenever, wherever.”
Saturday’s card began with a victorious four-round professional debut for 17-year-old Israeli super welterweight David Kaminsky (1-0) against a local no-hoper Texan named Rafael Munoz (1-3-1). For all the talk preceding Kaminsky’s debut, there was more noise than effective aggressiveness – and after a very quick start Kaminsky mostly raised questions about his own power through the match’s remaining 3 1/2 rounds of frustration.
Opening bell sounded on a sparsely filled American Bank Center at 6:08 PM local time.
