Tonight's edition of Solo Boxeo Tecate on Telefutura featured a superb main event and the television return of one of the most ferocious fighters in the world today.
In the main event, lightweight prospect Luis Ramos Jr. got all he could handle from Jose Hernandez, escaping with a majority decision win after eight rounds. Scores were 79-73 and 77-75 for Ramos, and a 76-76 card. The 79-73 score was very wide and is quite debatable to say the least. Ramos (18-0, 8 KO) found out he was in for a tough fight early with Hernandez (10-5-1, 4 KO), who as always applied consistent and effective pressure, and fought his heart out. Hernandez is an absolutely excellent gut-checker and will get a lot more fights like this one, and he's going to win a few along the way, probably. He's got heart, he takes shots well, and he's tough to deter. He's also a fairly limited boxer who leaves himself open for plenty of offensive opportunities from his opponents. Ramos took plenty of advantage of those, and I definitely don't think it's a disgrace that he won or anything, but the 77-75 and 76-76 cards absolutely represent this fight, while the 79-73 card does not.
Ramos is still just 22, a southpaw with iffy power, apparently at least a decent chin (Hernandez hit him plenty), and he's got grit. He'll mix it up even when it's not to his advantage to do so, which it really wasn't tonight. Both Hernandez and Ramos are listed at 5'8", but Ramos might be a bit shorter than that, or Hernandez is a little bit taller.
It's a good win for the prospect, a necessary step to continue finding out whether or not he's going to be the real deal. He's certainly not a great prospect by any means, but without huge hype comes time to keep polishing his skills in fights like this one. Expect to see a lot more of Hernandez on TV -- he's got a reputation now as being TV friendly and a good test for young fighters.
In the co-feature, James Kirkland (27-0, 24 KO) wiped out Jhon Berrio (15-9, 11 KO) at 1:05 of the second round. It wasn't a sensational performance or stoppage, as Berrio crumbled under the unrelenting pressure of Kirkland and was hurt on a body shot that combined with other blows sent him to the mat, but Kirkland is still the same fighter mentally, it appears. He's definitely not in peak condition yet. He looked fit, but you could tell his wind isn't quite there yet, and these fights he's taking are a piece of the puzzle to get him back to where he was before, as quickly as possible. Berrio was scrappy in the first round, but probably more out of self-defense than anything, as Kirkland was the same bull-rusher he's always been and wasted no time going at the Colombian.
Kirkland is scheduled to fight on the April 9 HBO PPV undercard, with no opponent yet named.