Saturday, December 15, 2018

Boxing Challenge-Ramirez wins in Crunch Time.

Jesse Hart had called out WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez for a rematch of their 2017 fight that was a decision win for Ramirez but saw Hart charging down the stretch as the stronger fighter to narrow a huge lead at the final bell.

This fight was similar (Hart again mounted a late charge), a little different (Hart didn't get knocked down as he did in the first fight) and the fight lacked either fighter being seriously hurt as in their first encounter.

Still, with Hart seeming to be the stronger fighter, Ramirez having spent a few rounds with what appeared to be an arm or elbow injury, the blocks were falling into place like Tetris for Hart to win the title for himself and his dad, the former contender Cyclone Hart for the perfect television story ending as we entered the final round.

Sometimes, the predictable ending isn't the ending that occurs as almost simultaneously, Hart realized Ramirez was injured, turned into a fighter in cruise mode, Ramirez turned in a Larry Holmes-like final round as a one-handed fighter and landed more punches in a brave final stand to win the last round to earn a draw (114-114) on my card.
The more important cards though saw Ramirez a winner via a majority decision (had Hart won the final round, Ramirez would have still retained his title via a majority draw) and an inconsolable Hart after the fight.

Hart has no one to blame other than himself though as under the circumstances, it has been a long time since I've seen a fighter with so much to gain and with so many advantages entering the fight's end, just utterly lay an egg in such a manner.
Just an absolute stunner after eleven rounds of a strong effort for Hart and for Ramirez, he showed heart and grit in overcoming injury to pull out a fight that could have gone either way.
I'm not sure how long Ramirez will be out of the game as he recovers from this injury and he's expected to vacate the WBO title in order to move to the light heavyweight division, but despite punching power that has to be questioned and a competition resume that is made to be questioned
outside of Hart, he'll have an easier time finding better fights at the higher division so we could know soon, whether Ramirez is a nice fighter or a really good one as each of the four light heavyweight champions (Alvarez, Bivol, Beterviev, and Gvozdyk) are undefeated.

Hart will have a good chance of being chosen to fight for the title likely to be vacated considering his two fights vs Ramirez, but he has to be kicking himself after the final round and if he was told he was far ahead by his corner, that's on them and I'd definitely consider changes there if that was the case.

Most observers had Ramirez as the number one super middleweight, even over WBA champion and World Boxing Super Series winner Callum Smith, so there will be a shakeup in the division and although I favor IBF champ Jose Uzcategui as the best fighter in the division post-Ramirez, there will be much to be decided there- if the right fighters fight each other.

Overall, Gilberto Ramirez showed things that he never had to show before, while Jesse Hart returns to the gym and will have to wait for another time to attempt to erase the one that got away.

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