GBP OPENS 2012 BOXING SEASON WITH A BANG!
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 07 Jan 2012
Indio, California:- You have to give it to the people who put up the fights for the Golden Boy Promotions. They sure know what they are doing and they do a great job at it.
Tonight at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in this desert town some 90 odd miles east of Los Angeles, the GBP put up their first fight card for the year in Southern California.
Needless to say, it was a sizzler except for a small incident that has nothing to do with GBP which we will discuss at the end of this article.
At any rate, in the big main event of the evening, Sta. Ana?s Luis Ramos kept his record immaculate ( 21-0-0, 9KO) with a hard fought unanimous decision over Freddie Roach-trained Raymund Beltran (25-6-0-17KO).
Beltran of course is best know to the Filipinos as one of the perennial sparring partners of Manny Pacquiao when Pacquiao trains at the Wildcard Gym in Hollywood.
There were no knockdowns in the 10 round fight that awarded the WBA Fedelatin Lightweight title to the winner.
Early in the fight (Round 3) Ramos was cut on the right eyebrow by an accidental head butt but the kid from Sta. Ana just ignored the cut and when on with his game plan. The cut became larger as the fight progressed due to the heavy left hands landed by Beltran but it did not became a factor in the final results.
In the end Ramos won the title with the judges scoring as follows: 97-93, 97-93 and 96-94.
In the supporting main event, Omar Figueroa (13-0-1, 10KO) of Westlaco, Texas won the vacant WBO Interim Youth Lightweight title via TKO over the highly regarded and previously undefeated Michael Perez of Puerto Rico via Newark, NJ.
Perez quit on his stool and did not answer the bell for round 5. With the loss Perez is now 15-1-1, 9KO)
Other results:
Michael Finney of Las Vegas who trains under Robert Garcia stayed undefeated (8-0-0, 7K0) with a unanimous decision over journeyman Hector Orozco of Hopkins, MN. Orozco with the loss is now 4-10-0.
Rocco Espinosa of Las Vegas improved to 2-2-0 with a victory over Nephi Mohammad, a Pacquiao look-alike of Sta. Ana. But facial similarities with Pacquiao is all Mohammad can brag about. In fact, the ringside photographers were jokingly saying that he should work as a ?stand-in? for Pacquiao rather than a professional boxer. Mohammad?s loss brought his record to 0-2-0.
In the curtain raiser, Christopher Pearson of Troutwood, Ohio got his second career win with a unanimous decision over Cleven Ishe of Long Beach. Ishe is now 3-5-0, 1KO.
Incidentally, when the televised portion of the fight card (Showtime) started, a very intelligent Showtime camera crew came in and started to push ringside photographers away from their legitimate spots assigned by the promoter. The guy wanted a major space for himself when all he did was roll and unroll the cord as the cameraman did his thing.
The photographers of course just moved away and ignored the very smart Showtime crew.
Surely, it takes a lot of brains to do his job and he showed it by pushing away the credentialed still photographers.
The guy is a black mark for Showtime and he does not deserve his job no matter if he was so smart to do the very difficult job he had.
Top photo: Perez (L) tags Beltran with a right.
Luis Ramos wins by unanimous decision over Raymundo Beltran.
Omar Figueroa vs Michael Perez.
Figueroa wins.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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