Casey Ramos faces Andy Vences in battle of unbeaten prospects

On Friday, Spanish language network UniMas is broadcasting an excellent card. The main event features Casey Ramos (23(6)-0) against Andy Vences (16(10)-0). Both of these prospects have flawless records, and could easily mix it up in the lightweight division.

The edge in experience is Casey Ramos, but there’s lingering questions. As his KO ratio shows, he’s not much of a puncher. And unfortunately, there’s questions about his chin. In his last fight, Ramos was knocked down by Hardy Peredes, who was 18-13 and 3-3 in his last 6 fights coming into that match-up. Prior to that, he’s also been knocked down by Joselito Collado back in 2011.

As noted, Andy Vences doesn’t have the same experience that Ramos has, but he’s got respectable power. He once went on an 8 fight KO streak. He’s also shown the ability to go the distance in 8 round match-ups.

Even so, this is a 10 round fight, and neither fighter has gone 10 rounds. Hell, this is the first time Vences has ever been scheduled for 10 rounds.

But as decent as this match-up is, I prefer what’s on the undercard.

Jesse Hart (20(16)-0) is a Philadelphia fighter with the alias “Hard Work”. And with an 80% KO ratio, you know what you’re getting with Hart. Whenever you hear of a Phillie fighter rising through the ranks, you hope he’s hard working, hard hitting, and — most importantly — tough.

He’s got wins over some good names: Aaron Pryor Jr., Derrick Findley, and the previously undefeated Mike Jimenez. Some people might argue with my use of the word “good” here, but remember Hart is a prospect, and he’s yet to prove anything at world level.

Hart, though, has one important cause for concern. In his last fight against Dashon Johnson (21(6)-20-3), he was knocked down in R10. Now to be fair, Johnson has one of those tricky records that doesn’t tell the whole story. He has wins over Decarlo Perez, Mike Gavronski, and Adam Trupish. I was at Johnson’s fight against Trupish, and let me tell you, I now have lots of respect for Johnson. This is to say that Hart’s last performance isn’t as bad as it looks.

Andrew Hernandez (16(7)-4-1), though, is probably drooling in anticipation. He’s now won his last 6 fights, with 5 of them by stoppage. The bulk of these wins were against journeymen. However, one of those wins was against highly regarded prospect Arif Magomedov, who was undefeated at the time. Based on Hart’s last outing with Johnson, Hernandez probably thinks he can do to Hart what he did to Magomedov.

One of the reasons I love Pacquiao fight week is because Bob Arum leverages them to put on bouts like this. UniMas usually broadcasts so-so match-ups. Not this week.