Gilberto Ramirez defends title, takes decision over Alexis Angulo

Super middleweight titleholder Gilberto Ramirez was able to successfully defend his world title tonight in Oklahoma City, taking a unanimous decision on two scorecards of 119-109 and one score of 120-108. I scored the fight 117-111 in favor of Ramirez for BLH.

The fight, if I’m being completely honest, wasn’t much of a spectacle or an electrifying performance for Ramirez, but it was good enough to take a win. His opponent, Angulo, was mostly content to play it defensive and wait for a counter opportunity to land a fight changing power shot — it never came. In the post-fight interview Ramirez admitted that he wasn’t really happy with his performance tonight.

The fight preceding the main event was a 6-round clash between junior lightweights Robson Conceicao and Gavino Guaman (although it appeared like Conceicao was significantly larger than his overmatched opponent). That fight ended in the third round after Conceicao had dropped Guaman four times, just battering him around the ring in a showcase fight.

The televised opener, however, was a Fight of the Year contender in my eyes, a true blood bath between Alex Saucedo and Lenny Zappavigna. Those two junior welterweights went to war over the course of seven rounds, both taking serious punishment and cuts, and there was blood everywhere!

But unfortunately Zappavigna’s face fell apart much worse and began to look like a raw, mangled steak and that led to an eventual stoppage. Here’s what Zappavigna looked like in the aftermath.

With the win Saucedo looks to move on to bigger things while Zappavigna contemplates retirement.