The Oscar De La Hoya-led company not only received the spectacular win that they needed from their newest addition Gilberto Ramirez, but they won a fight that they weren't guaranteed to win with a unanimous decision from Joseph Diaz.
In the main event, Ramirez dominated an apparently close to the end of the line Sullivan Barrera and took the air out the 39 year old Cuban with body blows that Barrera was unable to take as Ramirez scored a fourth-round knockout.
The fight was essentially over the third when Ramirez realized that every time that he hit Barrera to the body, Barrera couldn't shrug them off and late in the third scored a knockdown on a body blow.
Ramirez, who hasn't always been a fabulous finisher in the past, showed signs of development as he continued to crack Barrera to the body in the fourth, scoring two more knockdowns before the fight was mercifully ended.
For Ramirez, it's the type of win that could set him up for a challenge of WBA champion Dmitry Bivol and to win against a well-known opponent in an exciting manner, which hasn't always been the case for Ramirez, is very encouraging for boxing fans that want to see that fight.
As for Barrera, this loss is now his third in four fights and he continues to slide down the light heavyweight food chain as this loss will likely move him from fringe contender to gatekeeper or perhaps even trialhorse status.
The co-feature was an entertaining lightweight bout for a WBC minor title, but more importantly, would position the winner for a shot at WBC champion Devin Haney or a big name and perhaps payday in Ryan Garcia.
Former IBF junior lightweight champion Joseph Diaz took the fight on somewhat short notice when Garcia claimed mental illness as a reason to drop out of his mandated fight against Javier Fortuna and claimed he would be stronger at the higher weight after dropping his IBF title on the scales for missing weight.
Diaz's claims turned out to be true for this fight as he survived a questionable point deduction and a headbutt that opened a slice along his left eye to dominate the second half of the fight to win a unanimous decision over Fortuna.
Diaz was far more efficient (landing more while throwing less) than Fortuna and after falling behind on my card early, his work took command, and Diaz, never known as more than average hitter at 126 and 130 pounds, appeared to have hurt Fortuna in the tenth although the veteran rode out the storm.
Diaz now is the mandated fight for Devin Haney's WBC belt, although an in-house Ryan Garcia fight could pay more and be a more valuable win should he emerge with the win.
As for Fortuna, he fought well enough to remain in the top ten picture, but with the championships residing with Teofimo Lopez and Top Rank, Fortuna may have seen his final title opportunity go by the wayside.
In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored two points to move the total to 98-89 in my favor.
Back later, with some tributes to recent passing from the sports world.
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