The two-time Cuban gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez is now the WBO featherweight world champion after defeating former world champion Isaac Dogboe for the vacant world title on Saturday, April 1st, at the Hard Rock Hotel, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Ramirez started slow, but methodical, as the two fighters fought to a stalemate in the first round. The second round saw Ramirez stun Dogboe, but Dogboe land a lot to the body of Ramirez as well, a very competitive round that Ramirez stole with some eye catching and effective punching.
Ismael Salas, the coach of Robeisy Ramirez told Ramirez to press the action, and to use his feints to set-up his offense, prior to the third round. The third round saw Ramirez use the feints his coach asked for as Ramirez began to slow the fight down, and land very effective shots.
The best moment of action in the fight thus far was seen with a back-and-forth exchange between the two when Dogboe landed a counter right hand, and Ramirez responded right away. The round summed up the fight in a nutshell. Despite landing a few good punches, Dogboe, would finish the round looking discouraged.
The fifth round saw Barry Hunter, Dogboe’s coach, gave a spirited speech telling Dogboe that Ramirez is a “one-handed fighter”, in reference to Ramirez’s love of throwing a straight left from the southpaw stance. It was the strategy of Salas, versus the motivation of Barry Hunter.
The sixth round saw Dogboe land a big right hand when Ramirez was off-balance, as Ramirez would get his revenge with a straight left hand not long after. Towards the end of the round, Ramirez landed a big left uppercut that caught the attention of Dogboe. The seventh round saw Dogboe land an eye catching overhand right, but it was the lack of activity from both fighters in the seventh that stood out the most as not many clean punches landed. Dogboe oddly switched to southpaw toward the end of the round, which was…weird. Ramirez landed his best punches at the end of the round. A very anticlimactic round.
The eighth round saw the more talented fighter Ramirez able to outbox Dogboe in large spurts of the round. A few of the later rounds started to blend together as Ramirez just kept his distance well and boxed from the outside. Despite some moments from Isaac Dogboe, it was Ramirez doing very little to accomplish a lot, and Dogboe having to do a lot to accomplish a little.
The eleventh rounds saw Dogboe have some of his strongest moments of the fight as the fight as a whole was a grueling tough fight, but not a memorable one, as neither guy landed a shot that seemed remarkably memorable. The twelfth round saw Ramirez drop Dogboe who was being aggressive hoping to swing the tide of the fight.The gamble didn't pay off as the final round was one of Ramirez’s best of the fight.
The judges scored the bout 117-110, 118-109, and 119-108 for Ramirez.
