Jake Paul (12-1, 7 KOs) beat Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (54-7-1, 34 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision in a cruiserweight fight that failed to live up to the expectations from fans on Saturday night on DAZN PPV at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
The fight appeared to be even at the end, but the judges gave it to Jake by a wide decision that didn’t match the fight that took place inside the ring.
Fans wanted action, given the price tag on PPV, but the 39-year-old Chavez Jr. couldn’t let his hands go during most of the first half of the fight. By the time he finally did begin fighting back in the second half, it was too late to win a decision.
With the judges scoring the fight, he would have needed to knock out Paul regardless. They were giving Paul almost every round, even the ones that Chavez Jr. dominated.
The scores were 99-91, 97-93, and 98-92.
Ramirez defeats Dorticos
In the chief support bout, WBA and WBO cruiserweight champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez (48-1 (30 KOs) beat his WBA mandatory challenger Yuniel Dorticos (27-3, 25 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision. The scores were 117-110, 115-112, and 115-112 for Ramirez. This was another questionable decision. Dorticos appeared to do enough to deserve the win.
After the fight, Ramirez said about Dorticos, “He can hit.”
Fans on social media said it wasn’t the statement fight that Ramirez needed to say that he’s ready to fight IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia in a unification fight.
Indeed, people are saying that after this performance from Ramirez, he stands no chance of beating IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia or David Benavidez. Ramirez looked too flabby and slow tonight.
Schofield Destroys Farmer
In the surprise of the fight, lightweight contender Floyd Schofield (19-0, 13 KOs) knocked out Tevin Farmer (33-9-1, 8 KOs) in the first round on the undercard. Schofield dropped Farmer, 36, twice and stopped him with a follow-up blizzard of punches.
Farmer never seemed to recover from the first knockdown of the round after getting hit with a hard right hand to the chin. When the action resumed, Schofield quickly dropped Farmer a second time with three hard punches. The fight was stopped shortly after that when Schofield connected with four hard punches, causing referee Gerard White to stop the fight.
