Highlights and results: Scrappy Ramirez wins clear decision over Luis Padilla, Manuel Flores and more win

Scrappy Ramirez may not have won over everyone watching tonight, but the junior bantamweight prospect remained unbeaten with a clear decision win over a game Luis Padilla.

Ramirez improved to 11-0 (8 KO) with the victory, which came on scores of 99-91, 99-91, and 100-90. Bad Left Hook unofficially had it 100-90 for Ramirez, too.

Scrappy — whose given name is John but it’s clear he’s not going by that, in one of those Winky Wright sort of ways where it becomes more than a nickname — got some boos here and there in Indio, Calif., mainly for showboating, and realistically, that’s just the sort of response he’s going to elicit from some people. He’s a flamboyant personality, very in your face with his confidence and cockiness and even his ring walks and outfits, and if you don’t totally show out, that can happen.

Padilla (15-4-2, 2 KO) did his best in this fight but was never really in it, though you wonder if he might have been if he had any real punching power, and that is still a question Scrappy will have to answer as he goes forward.

As for not getting the stoppage himself, Ramirez said he didn’t fixate on that.

“I was just following the game plan. There’s a system to this, fight smart. I wanted to take him out at one point, then I just told myself, ‘Just break him down, if the knockout comes, it comes.’ I wasn’t really looking for a knockout,” he said. “He’s tough, but you know what, I need the rounds, so I’ll take it.”

Ramirez, who picked up a regional WBA title, also called for an eliminator fight to come next.

“That’s next. After that, I need the champion, Joshua Franco. It’s not personal, it’s all business,” he said.

Ramirez vs Padilla highlights

More results

• Manuel Flores SD-8 Franklin Gonzalez: A tough eight rounds for “Gucci Manny,” but he gets the W to improve to 15-0 (11 KO). Two judges had it 77-74 for Flores, the other had it 76-75 for Gonzalez. Bad Left Hook unofficially had it 76-75 for Flores, with the difference being a questionable fifth round knockdown that may have been more of a shove, even though a shot did land. Gonzalez (25-2, 25 KO) definitely earned himself more prospect tester dates with this performance. He was there the whole fight with Flores, landed some good counter shots, targeted the body a bit, and made this a very tough fight. Really good experience for Flores, too, as he looks to work his way to proper contender status at bantamweight. Flores is not some Super Blue Chipper, and this is where Golden Boy excel developing that type of prospect, by actually testing them. These are not fighters who are going to get there with kid-glove handling on their raw ability, they need to continue to get better, and sometimes it doesn’t happen, but sometimes it does and you make a contender out of a good-but-not-phenomenal prospect because they actually, truly develop in their pro career.

• Kat Lindenmuth SD-6 Lorraine Villalobos: Scores were 58-56 and 59-55 for Lindenmuth, and a 58-56 card for Villalobos. Lindenmuth (3-1, 0 KO) deserved the nod here, and I’m glad she got out. She out-landed Villalobos (5-5, 2 KO) pretty significantly, but Villalobos did stun Lindenmuth a time or two, and it was just a good damn fight for all six rounds, just action, action, action. Can’t argue with that.

• Grant Flores TKO-1 Jorge Lopez: The pro debut for Flores (1-0, 1 KO), an 18-year-old welterweight. Tall at 6’1”, long arms, and though he knocked Lopez (0-2) down in the opening seconds, he did not rush things from there, showed a real maturity and poise. Lopez did his best to wing some power shots back and try to change the fight quickly, but Flores was just patient, shook him on another shot that had Lopez’s nose bloodied, and the referee stepped in at 2:31. Good debut.

• Stefanie Cohen UD-4 Leanne Calderon: Scores were 38-37 across the board, as they should have been, and the difference was a second round knockdown scored by Cohen (3-1-1, 1 KO), a 30-year-old fighter who has real promise but also still a lot of flaws. She’s a power lifter who took up boxing in 2020 and still doesn’t have boxer cardio. She’s got real athletic gifts and real power, but she gassed a bit in the third and fourth, and Calderon — who has a fitness competition background — hung in there and made this an even fight without the knockdown. If this had gone six, you kind of have to favor Calderon to have pulled it out, I think, but it didn’t. Remember Cohen, though; she’s got promise, and if she can put things together, she could get good very quickly.

• Zachary Spiller UD-4 Kaleel Carter: Spiller is a 29-year-old heavyweight who’s now 3-0 (2 KO), winning this fight on unanimous scores of 39-37. He won the first three clearly with Carter (3-4, 3 KO) just not really doing anything, and then lost the last one when Carter started doing anything. Not a lot to see here, to be honest.

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