06.12.03 – Carlos Kalinchuk @ ringisde, Photo Gallery: In the Main Event of the evening, young Hugo “Rambo” Ramirez improved his record to 23-1 (20 KO’s) after beating ring veteran Melchor Cob Castro 65-12 (40 KO’s) in an 8 round non-title fight. The fight itself was a give and take battle that had the crowd give it’s most animated response of the night. Although Ramirez had only fought 6 Amateur fights before he became a pro, and he was only fighting his 24th professional prize-fight, he put on an impressive performance against the aging but still worthy left handed Castro. When the cagey Castro was hurt he would hold and move laterally, while Ramirez continually rebounded well from all exchanges, as he never appeared hurt in the bout. I had the bout scored 77-76 in favor of Ramirez while the judges had it all for Ramirez with scores of 78-74 twice and 77-75. The latter score seemed more realistic while the 78-74 scores seemed a little off.
After the fight Ramirez had this to say:
“I appreciate the people of Houston. They are good people and I would love to come back. I have family here but one thing I respect and love about the Houston fans is that when they accept you, they embrace you for a long long time. I don’t care who I fight next. I’ve been training since I was 14 but I’ve only had 6 amateur fights. I felt a little disrespected because the media and all the fans were totally ignoring me going into this fight but they told me to impress them in the ring and not out of it and I would be fine and they were right. My team and I also talked about how when a few famous singers in Mexico started, and they would show up to perform, and they would discover that their dressing room was taken and they would have to change clothes where they could find an empty spot or sometimes they would have to just undress in front of whomever just to get ready to perform. My team was upset about the treatment and the hotel arrangements but I told them not to worry because Castro maybe somewhere nicer now, but we’ll be in nicer hotels and bigger places later. I’m doing this for my family. I want them to live in nicer places and I want them all benefit from my boxing. I wasn’t intimidated about fighting on this card because I have no legends that’s I’ve admired in boxing. I have never paid attention because what’s been important to me has always been training and focusing in my career and improving my families life-style so no one intimidates me or makes me nervous.”
Fight Assessment:
In round one, Ramirez connected effectively with his overhand rights. He put his punches together in bunches and in spite of getting clocked with an effective Castro left, he clearly won the round.
Round two would be different as Castro caught Ramirez with a solid uppercut early on. The round had its fair share of give and take as Castro took a hard right as he stepped back with his guard down. However, Castro’s bodywork connected with increasing frequency until an accidental clash of heads forced Referee Bobby Gonzalez to stop the bout momentarily so Dr. Guerrero could inspect the cut at the top-center of Ramirez’s head. Both closed strong at the closing seconds but Castro was more consistent in this round.
Round 3 had Ramirez start off the round with a rapid-fire jab that found its mark on Castro’s face impressively. Unfortunately, another accidental head-butt had Castro reeling as he seemed to be more upset than Ramirez even though he wasn’t the one bleeding (yet). Shortly after in an adventurous moment, Castro was trying to give Ramirez a different look by standing in a right handed fighters stance, he instantly took a vicious Ramirez right hand shot that had him convinced the momentary tactic of fighting right handed was not worth trying again for the remainder of the fight. An easy round to score in favor of Ramirez.
Round 4 was much of the same as Ramirez’s overhand rights continued to find their mark; hence another round for the 22-year-old Ramirez.
Round 5 was the best round of the fight as Castro tried to regain the momentum with some effective body shots. Another head but occurred and the frustrated Castro in a fit of anger shoved Ramirez through the ropes and out of the ring. Thankfully, the ring was a large enough and the extended canvass and Referee Bobby Gonzalez saved Ramirez from serious damage. Castro was warned but not penalized by Gonzalez. This seemed to only spurn the action in the ring as both went toe to toe along the ropes. Castro won this round and this was the first round in which the head butts finally opened up a cut on the side of Castro’s head. The cut was nowhere near the eyes and just like Ramirez’s cut in round 2, it proved to be insignificant.
Round 6 saw Castro even the fight as his body shots again found their mark on Ramirez’s hips, kidneys, and stomach. Ramirez landed some shots of his own but the bodywork Castro displayed was impressive as he smothered the longer and taller Ramirez on the inside.
I scored round 7 even as Castro’s bodywork and Ramirez’s power shots seemed to be about even. Castro landed a high quantity of body shots while Ramirez’s fewer but harder power connects made this a very hard round to score; hence, the even score going into the final round.
Round 8 saw Ramirez close the show impressively as he threw big bombs from all angles as he remembered to incorporate some head movement. Again I scored Ramirez as the winner by winning 4 rounds, losing 3, and scoring one even.
In the co-featured bout of the evening, Jr. Lightweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. won his American pro-debut to improve his fledgling record to 3-0 after giving Gerardo Penaflor his 3rd loss in 3 fights. The taller lankier Chavez won by official scores of 40-36 twice and 39-37. Although Chavez was fighting a “true opponent” he appeared winded after only one round. From round 2 on, his mouth was open for the remainder of the fight. I scored the fight 39-37. In round 3, some hard Penaflor left hooks to the head caught Chavez Jr. In spite of the collected gasp from the crowd, he took it well. Chavez appears to have “some” semblance of his fathers textbook left hook at times but he needs major work on his body so he doesn’t get winded so quickly.
I caught up with papa Chavez before the fight and he had this to say, “This is the worst thing. I don’t like it. To see your own son getting hit is unbearable. I can’t think of a worse thing happening.” When asked about choosing a different line of work for his son he said, “I can barely stand to watch it. I wish he wasn’t doing this, but it’s his choice and I’m here to support him. Like I said, I can’t think of a worse thing in my life to watch. It’s…not fun to watch for me.”
After the fight, Chavez Jr. took the mike and thanked the crowd but he did acknowledge that he got tired easily.
Glass chin of the night award goes to Cruiserweight Jesus Valadez 12-14-4 (10 KO’s) after going down 3 times in round 3 of his scheduled 6 rounder with Felix Cora Jr. 12-0 (7 KO’s) of Galveston. In spite of beating the count, referee Barry Yates waived off the fight after the 3rd knock down. The official stoppage was by TKO in 2:49 seconds of round 3.
In the opening bout of the evening, Benjamin Flores opened his pro career with wipe out victory in 42 seconds of round 1 over Terry White. White drops to 0-2 while Flores starts off his career on the right foot with a KO victory.
Carlos “Stiff-jab” Kalinchuk
Contributing Writer & Photographer