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It was an entertaining, at times competitive fight between a pair of hungry, young fighters, and in the end, Jose Ramirez got his hand raised, kept his undefeated record, and leaves New York as the new WBC junior welterweight champion.
Scores were 115-113, 117-111, and a wide 120-108 for Ramirez. BLH had two cards of 117-111 for Ramirez.
Ramirez (22-0, 16 KO) was able to outwork and outland Imam (21-2, 18 KO), who was game and showed his talent, but had trouble dealing with some of Ramirez’s pressure, which is what also lost him a fight to Adrian Granados in 2015.
The win puts Ramirez into the top level of the 140-pound weight class, if nothing else than because he’s able to call himself world champion. He realistically still has some levels to go, against fellow top fighters at the weight, but he has been terrific as a professional so far, and has the style to become a star in the sport.
According to CompuBox, Ramirez landed 282 of 799 (35%) of his total punches, and a great 44% connect rate (228 of 536) on his power shots. Imam landed 182 of 653 (29%) of his total punches, and 108 of 372 (29%) of his power shots.