Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas– Saturday night on HBO Latino 23-year-old Mexican super middleweight prospect, Gilberto Ramirez (30-0, 24 KOs) did what only two other fighters– Lucian Bute and Kelly Pavlik– could do in stopping tough Colombian journeyman Fulgencio Zuniga (27-10-1, 24 KOs).
The eight-round TKO came at the end of a long, sustained beating where the young prospect calmly and casually landed hard, long-range shots on his 37-year-old opponent without suffering much in return.
Ramirez, who has been very vocal about his dislike for countryman Julio Cesar Chavez, looked very much like a left-handed version of the second generation star, with a bit more to learn in terms of punch selection and calculated aggression.
But, despite all the big talk and the tremendous push from Top Rank Promotions, everyone’s aware that Ramirez is still very much a work in progress, just starting to reach the highest levels of the sport.
Saturday’s dominant win over Zuniga and his similarly dominant win over Giovanni Lorenzo earlier this year give him victories over two of the division’s better and most-traveled gatekeepers. 2015 should be a year where a half step is taken forward in level of competition with world title talk just around the corner.
On the undercard, 23-year-old featherweight prospect Oscar Valdez (13-0, 12 KOs) impressed with a dominant seventh round TKO of tough journeyman, Alberto Garza (26-9-1, 21 KOs).
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