GILBERTO ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez overcame a slow start to retain his cruiserweight titles against former champion Yuniel Dorticos.
The chief support bout to Jake Paul-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr at the Honda Center lacked the eye-catching finish of earlier bouts but Ramirez won’t care. It was a workmanlike performance which earned the 34-year-old a points win over his 39-year-old opponent.
After four rounds, there was an argument for Dorticos to be ahead 3-1. Ramirez. 48-1(30 KOs), struggled to get up to speed and found himself pushed back by the Cuban who let his hands go often. Dorticos, however, made himself a target for referee Ray Corona with low blows which he received warnings for in round three.
In the fifth a four-punch salvo from the WBA and WBO unified champion brought him to life and kicked off a more dominant three minutes. Dorticos, 27-3 (25 KOs), wasn’t going away and continued to tag Ramirez but the Mexican was never in danger of being hurt or knocked out by the ‘KO Doctor’. Confident and comfortable Ramirez began to fight his challenger on the inside in round seven and slowly but surely began to take hope away from Dorticos.
Ramirez continued to chip away at Dorticos, who slowed in the remaining rounds. The veteran’s low blows were finally penalised in the 10th when he was deducted a point by referee Corona.
‘Zurdo’ was slipping more and more of Dorticos’ shots in the 11th and used the final six minutes to see out his mandatory title defence. The final round saw Ramirez land more and more to close the show, making Dorticos miss and look every one of his 39 years old. After 12 rounds Ramirez earned the verdict on all three judges’ scorecards 115-112 (twice) and 117-110.
Speaking to DAZN’s Ariel Helwani afterwards, Ramirez confirmed that he wanted to face IBF champion Jai Opetaia next.
“That’s the fight that I want,” he said.
