The boxing world anticipated Jose Ramirez defending his WBC and WBO junior welterweight titles against difficult veteran Viktor Postol from the Las Vegas bubble for several reasons.Getting the fight in at all after two postponements, Ramirez dealing with a difficult style from a more experienced and taller fighter, and would Ramirez be looking forward to a unification bout against WBA and IBF champion Josh Taylor at the expense of looking past Postol?
The answers to those questions vary, but Ramirez will be marching on to face Josh Taylor after a difficult majority decision over Postol, winning 116-112 and 115-113 on two cards with the other scoring it a draw at 114-114.
The fight swung back and forth between the two, as I had Ramirez winning the first few rounds, Postol taking command for the next handful, Ramirez then appeared to be coming on to put the fight in his column, but Postol rallied to put the seed of doubt in the minds of many before the cards were announced.
Ramirez was the aggressor throughout, but he did have his struggles against the jab and straight right of Postol and it does make you wonder about his chances against Taylor, who isn't as tall as Postol, but can box well and punches harder.
I'm willing to give Ramirez the benefit of the doubt between a thirteen-month layoff and three training camps for the fight for a good, not great victory, but he'll have to improve before a fight against Taylor.
As for Postol, at 37, he proved that he is still at a championship-caliber level and he should be in the mix for one of the titles that the winner of Ramirez-Taylor will be sure to vacate after their unification in 2021.
The co-feature saw undefeated junior welterweight Arnold Barboza win every round on all three scorecards (and mine) and only a late-round point deduction cost Barboza a perfect score of 100-90 in a unanimous decision over Tony Luis.
Barboza didn't step up the pace looking for a KO, but he was content with a lopsided domination and should be tested more in a possible next outing against former title challenger Alex Saucedo in what I think would be a very interesting crossroads fight.
Earlier in the day, ESPN+ streamed the best heavyweight prospect in the world as Daniel Dubois blasted out the sadly out of his league Ricardo Snijders in two rounds.
Dubois knocked Snijders down three times in the first round with the third knockdown occurring late enough in the round for Snijders to survive, but within seconds of round two Snijders was on the floor for the fight's conclusion.
Dubois looks the part as a future star, but his competition has not been stellar and who knows what happens when he gets hit.
Some answers will come in Dubois's next fight against undefeated former Olympic silver medalist Joe Joyce, who is very slow but hurts what he hits.
Dubois vs Joyce is another upcoming bout that I'm very interested in seeing.
And then there's Maude. errr PBC on Fox with another main event of dreadfully mismatched fighters.
Erislandy Lara had been given praise by many. including myself, for engaging more often and delivering more exciting fights in a split decision loss to Jarrett Hurd and a draw against Brian Castano and the "new" Lara was expected to cruise to victory against New England clubfighter Greg Vendetti.
Lara did cruise to victory, although the scores of 116-112 and 117-111 times two were closer than I saw the fight at 119-111, but he didn't excite anyone doing so and he certainly didn't pick up the pace in winning.
In other words, the "old" Erislandy Lara arrived when the new one would have saved himself and the viewers a long twelve rounds.
Lara looks to fight Canelo Alvarez next (fat chance) or the winner of the three title unification fight between Jermell Charlo and Jeison Rosario, which is more likely with Lara and the winner promoted by PBC but may not be the immediate focus.
The co-feature saw plenty of punches landed in an entertaining fight at a lower level as late replacement Vladimir Hernandez won a unanimous decision over Alfredo Angulo in a super middleweight fight that was initially scheduled as an IBF eliminator for a shot at Caleb Plant.
Both fighters landed plenty of punches, but either fighter would have had issues with an opponent of average speed, and Hernandez at 12-4 isn't going to beat very many contenders, but the story is Angulo, who is at the stage of his career that he needs to consider retirement.
Angulo, who upset Peter Quillin in his last fight, takes punishment in every fight and unless he's matched carefully as against Quillin, he will take more and more abuse.
The three judges scored the fight 98-92 for Hernandez, while I scored it for Hernandez a bit closer at 96-94.
In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored seven points over the weekend.
The total moves to 101-94.
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