Rigondeaux Knocks out Ramos to End a Lackluster Affair

Las Vegas, NV- Cuban star Guillermo Rigondeaux (9-0 ) and previously undefeated American Rico Ramos(20-1) brought fans a forgettable show Friday night at the Palms in Las Vegas, for all but about 20 combined seconds of round one and six. Two meaningful exchanges was all Rigondeaux needed however to score a stoppage.

An overwhelming majority of the bout saw both fighters staring eachother down, looking for an opportunity to counter punches that never happened. Rigondeaux looked to be on his way to a quick victory, as he dropped Ramos with a Right hand in the opening round, and pressed the action until the bell saved Ramos from first round stoppage.

After an intriguing first round, it didn’t take long for fans to not only lose interest, but join together in a chorus of boos from a lack of action. For as little as Rigondeaux did, Ramos did far less. The fight’s second interesting occurrence came in round six, when Ramos complained of a rabbit punch, that looked from the outside to have hit the top of his forehead. When Ramos was instructed to continue fighting Rigondeaux wasted no time, pressing the gas, hurting “Suavecito” with a body shot, and pressing on from there until he was on the canvas for a ten count.

Rigondeaux walked away with a stoppage, and his WBA Super Bantamweight title still in hand, while Ramos walked with his first career defeat, and a lackluster national television showing under his belt.

“Rico Ramos is a very good fighter,” said Rigondeaux. “But I train very hard and when I train, no one can beat me.”

“2012 is going to be my time. I’ve got the greatest promoter of all time, Bob Arum. I just want them to open the doors for me.”

“He showed he was a true champion, he was real tough. I showed I was a true champion by getting up. He caught me the first round and I went down. Then in the third he started to slow down.

He hit me in the back of the head and I got dizzy. The referee told us to fight and I wanted to take my time. That’s when he caught me with the head butt and I fell. I’m gonna bounce back harder. I’ll be up in that gym next week. It don’t stop.”, Said Ramos

While the main event had all the makings of tactical chess match, fans at the Palms might have had their expectations raised by the all out war between Guy Robb(7-1) and Joel Diaz(7-0) treated them to in the televised opener.

Robb opened up going strong to the body, but eating a high volume of right hands, as Diaz capitalized on the opportunity to tag his unprotected left side. Robb flipped the momentum in round two, dropping Diaz with a thunderous right hand. The pace of the bout wouldn’t belong to Robb long as he went down in round three twice in the midst of back and forth exchanges.

Northern California native Guy Robb went back to the game plan that brought him success early on and hammered away at Diaz’s body in the fourth round, and seemed to get the better of the exchanges making for an interesting situation on the scorecards.

With both men visibly gassed, Diaz seemed to have just a little bit more left as the fight continued. In round seven Diaz bombed away on the open left side of Robb, who’s defense worsened as the bout wore on. The pressure seemed to overtake Robb, who stopped firing back during a strong rally from Diaz with just under a minute left, and referee Vic Drakulich stopped the action, giving Diaz a KO7 win.

“It was much harder than I thought. I was expecting it to be more like my previous fights, but not everybody’s the same. I can’t hit everybody with one punch and knock them down.”, Said Diaz

This was my first time going 8 rounds. One of my fights before went 4 rounds, and all of the others ended in the first.

They gave us a call last Wednesday, to fill a spot as the co-feature on the Rico Ramos card, and who would turn that down? So we took the fight, we were already training, might as well

First time I’ve ever been knocked down. It was a lucky punch that caught me off guard, and I got up really quick. Hopefully it will never happen again. We’re gonna go back to the gym and continue working on my chin, like I’ve been doing”

In the opening televised bout, Burbank native Matt Villanueva(7-0-1) looked impressive in a seventh round stoppage of Mike Ruiz(8-2-1). Ruiz was gritty, and won a new crop of fans with his heart but was ultimately undersized and turned out to be tailor made for Villanueva.

A picture perfect left hook wobbled Diaz in round 7 and Villanueva’s killer instinct offered no time for recovery, prompting a stoppage from Russell Mora.

“I felt perfect, as far as my conditioning, this is the best I’ve ever felt. This was my first time going 8 rounds, and it was no problem. I was surprised that it went this long. He took a lot of my punches, and survived an early knockdown. He was able to get up and fight a few more rounds, and that surprised me.”, Said Villanueva

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank