Light heavyweight might have a new future star.
Albert Ramirez outlasted Artur Ziyatdinov over 10 rounds at the Montreal Casino, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The bout was a local grudge match. Ramirez is now with Eye of the Tiger, the lead promoter of the event. Ziyatdinov was with Eye of the Tiger until he was dropped around the time of his lone loss. That set the stage for this fight.
The only issue was that it was a methodical beating.
Ramirez, 31-years-old, who was a 2016 Olympian, controlled the range quickly with an active jab.
He slowly began to follow with power shots.
It became clear by the second round Ziyatdinov was going to need to make a major change, or else this would get ugly.
After four shutout rounds for Ramirez, a big left hand seemed to buzz Ziyatdinov.
The theme of the fight in the middle rounds was simple — Ramirez was cautious and talented, and Ziyatdinov was too tough for his own good. Ziyatdinov had moments, but the outcome started to get muddied.
Ramirez slowed down a great deal in the second half of the fight. That started in the sixth round and continued to the final bell.
Ziyatdinov started to outwork Ramirez as the rounds began to get closer and closer. The broadcast thought he was winning rounds, most I believe would describe the fight as ugly. Clean and effective punches seemed to be few and far between.
The judges scored the bout 99-91, 98-92 and 100-90 all in favor of Ramirez.
The fight was made on rather short notice as the telecast mentioned it was made only four weeks ago.
Ramirez now improves to 18-0 (15 KOs), while Ziyatdinov falls to 15-2 (12 KOs).
Coming into this fight Ramirez was ranked by all four world sanctioning bodies. The WBA had him at #4, the WBC and WBO both list him at #6, and the IBF ranks him at #11.
It is safe to say that if Artur Beterbiev and Dmitrii Bivol face each other, Ramirez will be one of the first challengers fight for a world title in some capacity after that undisputed fight.
