It took some work over the course of twelve rounds, but the champion from Avenal California got through it.

Jose Carlos Ramirez retained the WBC and WBO super lightweight titles with a majority decision win over former WBC champion Viktor Postol with scores of 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112. Ramirez is now 26-0 and Postol falls to 31-3 after coming into the bout with a two fight winning streak.

This bout was almost seven months in the making as the originally scheduled bout was February 1st in Hainan, China but due to the coronavirus outbreak in the country it was postponed a week before the fight was supposed to take place. There was another attempt to make the fight for May 9th in Carson, California but that was scrapped six weeks before that date. The fight finally took place on August 29th and it looked like both combatants were relieved that was the case. When the first bell rang, Ramirez and Postol wanted to get the proverbial cobwebs out of their system.

The first round started off well for the challenger as Postol threw his jab to score points on Ramirez. His plan was to get his jab working and then throw power shots when Ramirez was vulnerable. On the flip side Ramirez wanted to get to the inside and work the body of Postol and land hooks upstairs. A tactical battle was taking place for the first few rounds with one fighter getting the better of the other in each round. The first significant punch that was landed happened in the fourth round when Ramirez hit Postol with a left hook that staggered the Ukranian. It looked like Postol was in trouble but he was able to hold on and get through the round.

After those rounds it was a close battle until the tail end of the fight where Ramirez looked hungry to get the win over Postol as he landed more punches over the course of the last three rounds. That became the difference as through nine rounds, two judges had Postol ahead.

When asked about his performance, Ramirez felt like he did okay, but started off slow.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been in the ring,” Ramirez said. “I went in there a little too cold, you know? I impressed myself. I’m much stronger than most guys think.”

Ramirez was able to land more punches overall (156 to 147) and had a significant advantage in body shots landed (48 to 19) which swayed the cards over to his favor. Even with the activity that Ramirez showed on Saturday night, he feels that he could have done more.

“I think there was a little bit of hesitation throughout the fight. I think I could’ve made the fight a lot easier in my favor, but we live and we learn.”

This learning experience will be key if he is going to fight for the undisputed super lightweight championship. The WBA and IBF champion Josh Taylor (who beat Postol in 2018) has his sights set on Ramirez and would love to show that he is the top fighter in the division. Ramirez will look at what he did against Postol and work on what he could improve to be prepared for that showdown whenever it happens.

Cover photo by Mikey Williams