Robeisy Ramirez picked up his deepest win to date as a pro.
The two-time Olympic Gold medalist from Cinfuego, Cuba—now based out of Gulfport, Florida—scored his fifth straight victory after soundly outpointing Puerto Rico's Felix Caraballo in their eight-round featherweight contest.
Judge Julie Lederman scored the contest 79-73, while judges Tim Cheatham and Lisa Giampa each had it 80-72 in favor of Ramirez in their ESPN+ televised contest Saturday evening at The Bubble in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Both boxers appeared on the inaugural installment of Top Rank’s summer series on ESPN, though producing vastly different results. Ramirez picked up a 1st round knockout win on the undercard of Caraballo’s one-sided 6th round knockout loss to Shakur Stevenson atop the June 9 show.
Ramirez, of course, owns an amateur win over Stevenson, edging the Newark-bred southpaw in the Gold medal round of the 2016 Rio Olympics. The feat earned Ramirez the distinction of becoming a two-time Olympic Gold medalist for his native Cuba, though since relocating to the greater Miami area.
One month later came a revenge-fueled six-round win over Adan Gonzales, whom upended Ramirez in his pro debut last August in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A second-straight distance fight came on Saturday, with Ramirez (5-1, 3KOs) thoroughly outboxing Caraballo, a 33-year old from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico who remains winless outside of his home island.
Ramirez peppered Caraballo with jabs early in the contest, with the Cuban southpaw shooting straight lefts though not with much behind them. The lack of aggression put forth by Ramirez in the early rounds provided Caraballo with the belief that he was still in the fight.
Neither boxer did much to advance the action in the first half the contest, with the southpaw versus conventional matchup producing far too many head clashes for referee Robert Hoyle’s liking. Both combatants were frequently warned for leading with their head, keeping it just clean enough to avoid a point deduction but always defaulting to fighting forehead to forehead.
Ramirez opened up his attack late in round five. A straight left hand forced Caraballo (13-3-2, 9KOs) to grin and acknowledge the clean shot, with an ensuing volley of punches leaving the Boricua rocked towards the end of the frame.
The sequence was never properly followed up, as Ramirez fell into a bad habit he has recently developed where he tends to coast and settle for outboxing a hurt opponent. It resulted in his being extended beyond the sixth round for the first time as a pro. Caraballo needed a knockout to win, but never came close to landing that home run punch. Instead, he settled for going the distance against the gifted Cuban, who picks up his fourth win of 2020 and third in the past 100 days.
The bout served in supporting capacity to a junior welterweight crossroads bout between a pair of 2008 Olympians in former two-division titlist Jose Pedraza (27-3, 13KOs) of Cidra, Puerto Rico and Norwalk, California’s Javier Molina (22-2, 9KOs).
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