Quinonez wins NABF Lightweight Title over Ramirez

photo: goossentutor.com

By Kent Appel @ ringside

25.03 - In a bout that was much more competitive than the judges scorecards indicated, Steve Quinonez of Palm Springs, California won the vacant NABF lightweight title with a unanimous decision over Antonio Ramirez of Newark, New Jersey Sunday, March 23, 2003 at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California. Quinonez with the win improves his record to 30-6-1, 11 by KO while Ramirez falls to 19-6-6, 15 by KO. Both fighters weighed the division limit of 135 pounds.

Quinonez won on all three judges scorecards by scores of 116 to 112, 117 to 111, and 117 to 111 respectively. I saw the fight by the score of 116 to 114, six rounds for Quinonez to four rounds for Ramirez with two rounds being even. Neither fighter was very dominant over the other, and a lot of the rounds were close, but Quinonez was more accurate with his punches throughout much of the bout.

The Quinonez verses Ramirez fight was part of a live six bout fight card presented by Goossen Tutor Promotions in association with Pechanga and it was one of two fights on the card broadcast nationwide by Fox Sports Network

The fight started out slowly and the first round was mostly a feeling out process and not many telling blows were landed until the end of the round when Ramirez suddenly became aggressive and landed two hard punches, a left and a right at the bell. This was a sign of things to come as the action heated up noticeably in the next round.

Ramirez tried to continue where he left off at the end of round one in round two by aggressively pressing the action throughout most of the round and by using a strong body attack, particularly in the second half of the round. But I gave the round to Quinonez, a southpaw, on the basis of good use of the right jab and straight left. Quinonez counter punched well and he caught Ramirez with punches as Ramirez attempted to work his way inside.

Ramirez again pressed the action hard during the first minute of the third round with effective use of body blows until Quinonez landed a hard straight left hand to slow Ramirez’s forward momentum. Quinonez then controlled the action for most of the rest of the round from a distance behind a fine right jab. He capped this round by scoring a hard combination at the end of the round.

Ramirez stormed back in round four by closing the distance between him and Quinonez and in addition to using a strong body attack, in this round he started landing hard punches to Quinonez’s head. Quinonez was just not as accurate with his punches in this round and it was probably because of Ramirez’s increased attack.

The fifth round started with Quinonez back to controlling the action from a distance behind his right jab and while Ramirez was still pressing forward, he was not landing as much as he did in round four. But by the middle of the round, Ramirez began to find the range. But Quinonez fought back hard and I gave him a slight edge in the round based on his control of the first half of the round and also because he landed a hard two handed combination at the end of the round to the head of Ramirez. The fifth round featured some excellent toe-to-toe exchanges between the two fighters. It was the most action packed round of the fight up to that point.

Quinonez did an excellent job of counter punching and catching Ramirez coming in during round number six and even though Ramirez began to find the range in the second half of the round with a strong use of the right hand lead, Quinonez won the round on the basis of landing more punches.

Round seven was another action packed round which saw both fighters trading heavy leather. Ramirez controlled the action in the first half of the round by landing two handed combinations to the head of Quinonez but Quinonez fought back hard in the second half of the round by standing in well in the infighting and scoring with two handed combinations of his own. It was a very close round but Ramirez had the edge because of his efforts in the first half of the round and because he came on strong at the end of the round.

Quinonez went back to boxing behind his fine right jab in round eight and he also made good use of the straight left hand as Ramirez appeared to be tiring in this round. Ramirez just couldn’t seem to find the mark in this round.

I scored round number nine as being even as both fighters gave as good as they took. Ramirez pressed the action throughout this round and stayed on top of Quinonez but Quinonez fought back well with counters during the heated infighting. This round was typical of a lot of the rounds in this fight in that it was hard to pick one fighter over the other.

Ramirez stayed on top of Quinonez again in round ten but this time he got the better of the exchanges and he won the round. But the situation reversed itself in round number eleven as even though the book on Quinonez showed he would be better off boxing from a distance against Ramirez, he showed he could beat Ramirez at his own game. But a lot of it had to do with the fact that Ramirez was tiring badly, especially in the second half of the round.

Both fighters were visibly tired as they entered the last round of the fight but both men gave 100% from bell to bell and while the action was sloppy compared to earlier rounds in the fight, the audience gave both of them a tremendous ovation at the final bell in recognition of two fine warriors fighting their hearts out.

What is next for these two fighters? Both men fought well and are ready to take on at least some of the contenders in their division. The fight could have gone either way and a shift in the momentum for one fighter over the other could have spelled the difference between victory and defeat. A rematch would probably prove to be highly entertaining.

In a twelve round CO feature bout that was also broadcast on Fox Sports Network, NABF bantamweight champion Ricardo “Chapo” Vargas of Tijuana, Mexico defeated Gerson Guerrero of Mexico City, Mexico by an eleventh round technical decision. The bout was stopped at the two-minute mark of the round with Guerrero bleeding from a cut around the left eye that was caused by an accidental head butt. All three judges scored the fight for Vargas by identical scores of 109 to 100. Both fighters weighed the division limit of 118 pounds. Vargas with the win improves to 34-9-3, 11 by KO while Guerrero drops to 25-5, 19 by KO.

Vargas boxed beautifully throughout the bout as the showed textbook form in the art of counter punching and moving in and out of range and scoring with combinations to the head and the body. Guerrero was very game, and he did at times land some hard punches, but they were not enough to overcome Vargas’s superior skill.

The results of the four other bouts on the non televised undercard were as follows: Heavyweight Danell “Doc” Nicholson of Chicago, Illinois won a six round unanimous decision over Sione Asipeli of Las Vegas, Nevada. With the win Nicholson, 243 pounds, improves to 41-4, 30 by KO while Asipeli, 220 pounds, drops to 17-6-2, 8 by KO. The crowd booed the decision but I don’t agree with their sentiment. Asipeli did put on a spirited performance, but Nicholson controlled most of the action with the use of an effective right hand lead throughout the bout.

In an upset in a junior bantamweight bout, Jose Rico of Los Angeles, California scored a four round unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Sergio Espinosa of San Diego, California. Rico goes to 6-5-1, 2 by KO while Espinosa is now 8-1-1, 3 by KO. In a four round lightweight fight, Urbano Antillon of Los Angeles, California scored a knockout at 51 seconds of the second round over Leobando Roman of Los Mochis, Mexico. Antillon improves his record to 9-0, 6 by KO while Roman falls to 2-8-4, 1 by KO. Finally, Hector Rocha of Montebello, California defeated Jesus Jimenez of Zapopan, Mexico in a junior featherweight fight by unanimous decision. Rocha ups his record to 9-0, 2 by KO while Jimenez takes a step back to 9-10-2, 2 by KO.