By Rick Reeno

MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada - Gilberto Ramirez (34-0, 24KOs) made history by becoming the first Mexican fighter to capture world title at super middleweight when he boxed his way to a twelve round unanimous decision over Arthur Abraham (44-5, 29KOs) to capture the WBO super middleweight championship. All three judges had it 120-108.

A feeling out round in the first with Ramirez mostly working his jab from the distance on the much shorter Abraham. Ramirez continued to outwork him the second, with the long jab and hooks to the body. Near the end of the second, a counter hook wobbled Abraham, who held until the bell.

Abraham began to let his hands go more often during the fourth and landed a few good shots, but he was hurt once again, this time by a hard hook to the body, in the closing seconds.

A shift in the action during the sixth with Abraham starting to land some good shots to the head and he was backing Ramirez up at times. Ramirez came back in the seventh, working back with his jab and simply outworking Abraham with a much higher punch output.

Abraham was back in command during the eight, landing the better shots and had Ramirez on the move for most of the three minutes. Ramirez once again came back, in the ninth, by moving and outworking Abraham with a much higher output of punches.

Abraham nicked the tenth, with some good punches landed on Ramirez in the final minute of the action. A close eleventh round which may have seen Abraham potentially squeeze things out while Ramirez seemed to take off a round. Ramirez played it safe in the twelfth, but Abraham gave him very little to worry about with a very low punch output.

For the vacant WBO NABO featherweight title, Oscar Valdez (19-0, 17KOs) made a statement with a fourth round TKO of former IBF world champion Evgeny Gradovich (21-2-1, 9KOs).

Gradovich was pressing forward, throwing his usual punches in bunches but Valdez was making him miss and then making him pay with a good jab that was followed by hard counters. Valdez was more than willing to mix it up at times when the two of them were at close range, but he was mostly staying on the back-foot and countering.

Gradovich suffered a bad cut over his right eye during the second round and his face was starting to swell up on both sides. During the fourth, Valdez decked Gradovich with a hard bomb. Gradovich made it up, but the referee felt that he had taken enough punishment and stopped the fight.

In first bout of the 'No Trump' HBO Pay-Per-View undercard, WBC Continental Americas junior welterweight champion Jose Ramirez (16-0, 12KOs) won a ten round unanimous decision over Manuel Perez (25-12-1, 6KOs). The scores 97-93, 98-92 and 99-91.

Ramirez, who is trained by Freddie Roach, had to work hard for the win. Perez was very game, took a lot of punches and never stopped coming forward. There were plenty of exchanges with Ramirez landing the harder and more accurate punches.