IBF cruiserweight title holder Victor Emilio Ramirez (22-3-1, 17 KOs) was no match for WBA cruiserweight world champion Denis Lebedev (29-1, 22 KOs) on Saturday night in folding in just two rounds in their long awaited unification fight in the main event at the Khodnyka Ice Palace, in Moscow, Russia.
Lebedev flattened the 32-year-old Ramirez in the 2nd round. Lebedev then finished Ramirez off with a flurry of shots that had the Argentinian turning his back to the Russian fighter at one point before it was halted. The fight was stopped at 1:57 of the round by referee Steve Smoger. Ramirez is a good fighter. He’s just not a world champion level fighter, and that was shown clearly tonight by Lebedev.
The Lebedev vs. Ramirez fight was originally slated for the co-feature bout on the card. However, after heavyweight Alexander Povetkin tested positive for a banned substance for his title fight against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, the fight was postponed and pulled from the card. Instead of that interesting fight, the fans saw a mismatch between Lebedev and Ramirez.
This fight had the hallmark of a mismatch after Ramirez was held to a controversial draw in his first defense of his IBF title last October against Ovill McKenzie in Buenos Aires. Ramirez appeared to lose that fight by at least four rounds, but he lucked out with the judges scoring it a draw
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Easily the most talented fighter on the undercard was light heavyweight Dmitry Bivol (7-0, 6 KOs), who badly schooled WBA interim light heavyweight champion Felix Valera (13-1, 12 KOs) in defeating him by a 12 round unanimous decision to take his title. It wasn’t even a fight. It was 12 rounds of schooling by the 25-year-old Bivol. The fight was scored 119-107, 119-107, and 116-111. Valera was down in the sixth and eighth round. Valera suffered a bad cut above his right eye.
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Dmitry Kudryashov TKO 4 Julio Cesar dos Santos
Rakhim Chakhkiev UD 8 Tamas Lodi
Umar Salamov UD 12 Bob Ajisafe
Stanislav Kashtanov TKO 2 Tomasz Gargula
Alexey Papin UD 6 Yury Bykhautsou
Dilmurod Satybaldiev UD 12 Claudio Ariel Abalos