Bivol won almost all the middle rounds after the first four rounds were split evenly between the two and capped off the fight with an excellent round twelve.
Ramirez did have some success hitting the body of Bivol but more often was far too slow and plodding for the slick Bivol, who used a basic jab and right hand to keep Ramirez away and was never threatened by his foe.
I scored it for Bivol 116-112, which was a little closer than the judges at 118-110 and 117-111 times two but I could easily see the fight wider for Bivol, if you give Bivol one or two of the early rounds that I gave Ramirez.
Bivol stated that he wants a unification fight with Artur Beterbiev for all four world titles and such a fight would rank among the best fights that could be made in the sport with the smooth boxer/puncher in Bivol against the feared bomber in Beterbiev, who has knocked out every opponent in his career.
Beterbiev has a WBO mandatory commitment against Anthony Yarde in January and such a fight couldn't take place until the summer of 2023 but hopefully, the fight can be signed.
The co-feature saw a strange ending as Shavkat Rakhimov won the vacant IBF junior lightweight title with a ninth-round knockout of Zelfa Barrett to fill the title vacated by Joe Cordina, who needed surgery for an injury.
Both fighters signed a contract before the fight that agreed for the winner to fight Cordina when he is physically able to return.
Barrett stormed out of the gates and dominated the first four rounds blending boxing off the jab and whipping power punches on Rakhimov like he had spent his training camp watching Emanuel Steward teaching at the Kronk gym.
Barrett knocked Rakhimov down with an uppercut in the third round and appeared to be on his way to a mild upset but like a speed horse running at a distance, Barrett started declining in the fifth and Rakhimov began to slowly grind Barrett down in the middle rounds.
In the ninth, Barrett either suffered a leg injury or simply had nothing left as Rakhimov's pressure sent Barrett gamely but ineffectively around the ring, and even though the punches may not have been the cause as much as Barrett's legs, Rakhimov scored two knockdowns before the Barrett corner tossed in the towel of surrender.
Rahkimov-Cordina is a very interesting fight and in a division that now lacks Shakur Stevenson, could be in a position to establish themselves at the top of the division with WBA champion Hector Garcia and the winners of the two bouts to fill the vacancies left by Stevenson (WBC O'Shaquie Foster vs Rey Vargas and WBO Oscar Valdez vs Emanuel Navarrete).
The evening card from Showtime from Minneapolis ends with a sad note as the main event has taken a tragic turn.
Minor Super Middleweight champion David Morrell dominated his top-rated challenger Aidos Yerbossynuly over eleven rounds and delivered a beating, although entering the final round, Morrell had yet to score a knockdown.
Morrell had busted open Yerbossynuly's nose early in the fight, causing impressive bleeding that stained the trunks of each man with a pink hue and while Morrell was too much for Yerbossynuly, Yerbossynuly never stopped trying and never stopped coming forward, and when he ran into a straight left that knocked him down a few seconds into the round, Tony Weeks perhaps should have stopped the fight then and there, considering the state of the scorecards (I gave Yerbossynuly only of the eleven rounds) and how much punishment Yerbossynuly had taken.
Perhaps the corner could have stopped it considering Zelfa Barrett's corner earlier in the day stopped the fight to protect their man who had taken many fewer punches to the head.
Instead, the fight continued with Morrell landing at will in search of the knockout he promised and Yerbossynuly trying to grab and hold to make it to the final bell.
Tony Weeks deducted a point from Yerbossynuly for holding but allowed the fight to continue with Morrell continuing to land with impunity and Yerbossynuly taking shot after shot before a right floored Yerbossynuly again with Weeks ending the fight.
Dan Rafael is reporting, as of this writing, that Yerbossynuly is hospitalized and in a medically induced coma and I just feel that it didn't have to be this way.
The corner and the referee are employed to protect the fighter from themselves, and this is the type of fight that tragedy often occurs- a fight that doesn't see many knockdowns from a fighter that is a good but not spectacular power puncher against an opponent that is overmatched in talent but not in heart and results in a sustained beating to the head.
Hopefully, Yerbossynuly will be okay, although he should certainly retire.
As for Morrell, he won his eighth fight, the seventh by KO, and adds an impressive victory over the best opponent of his career but I'm not sure what's next for the Cuban.
Morrell isn't going to prove anything by dominating fighters of the class of Yerbossynuly but with Canelo Alvarez out for a few months with hand surgery, and others ahead of Morrell on the mandatory list, Morrell may be forced to fight these types of fights and maybe hope that eventually, he could face one of the David Benavidez-Caleb Plant combatants.
Ironically, Morrell might be more likely to face the loser of that fight scheduled for early 2023 as the winner will not be likely to risk a shot at Canelo Alvarez against the high-risk low-reward Morrell.
The co-feature saw a mild upset as late replacement Brian Mendoza knocked out former WBA and IBF junior middleweight champion Jeison Rosario in the fifth round of a middleweight ten-rounder.
Mendoza replaced the very talented prospect Yoelvis Gomez and maybe for Rosario's sake, that was a fortunate development.
Rosario has always had issues with taking punches with all three of his defeats entering the fight by stoppage and he had shown a tendency to crumble under body blows but still on pedigree Mendoza's chance was to catch Rosario and hope he wilted.
And that's exactly what happened as Mendoza worked the body and dropped Rosario in the second with Rosario barely surviving the stanza and even though Rosario courageously fought back, it seemed like the fight was Mendoza's to win- he would do just that with an uppercut in the fifth that ended the fight and Rosario's career as he announced his retirement following the fight.
That's likely a good idea as Rosario's punch resistance isn't going to improve as he fights more.
Mendoza will appear more on PBC cards after a solid win and I wouldn't be surprised to see him against former WBA and IBF junior middleweight champion Julian Williams, who lost his titles to Rosario and won a fight on the YouTube streamed undercard.
On the YouTube undercard, former contenders Andre Dirrell and Yunieski Gonzalez squared off in a light heavyweight bout that proved to be a good battle.
I wrote in the preview that fights like these can be quite fun with two veterans that perhaps don't have the skills and the legs that they once have but losing those attributes can make their fights more entertaining than in their prime.
Dirrell at 39 and Gonzalez at 37 were matched properly and the result was a back-and-forth fight that saw each man have their peaks with Gonzalez starting fast, Dirrell turning the tide in the middle rounds before Gonzalez hurt Dirrell in the ninth round.
That took a lot from Gonzalez and Dirrell ripped Gonzalez in the tenth and scored the stoppage with Gonzalez taking punches along the ropes
Dirrell was cut early in the fight and over Dirrell's career, he has often found a way to lose in strange ways that haven't always been the most courageous.
That's not the case in this one as Dirrell fought hard and found a way to win but I'm afraid that this win might have earned him a fight against a younger fighter looking to make his name and that wouldn't end well for Dirrell...
Boxing Challenge
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