Mark Anthony Hernandez and Leduan Barthelemy picked up very different wins on the undercard.
Someone’s 0 had to go. It went in decisive fashion.
In the main event of tonight’s Toe-to-Toe Tuesday on Fox Sports 1, Eddie Ramirez rebounded from a hard knockdown to stop fellow prospect Kevin Watts.
The taller Watts (11-1, 4 KO) worked well at range in the early going, turning aside the hard-charging Ramirez (15-0, 10 KO) with a crisp jab and good counters. Midway through the second, he countered a Ramirez flurry with a perfect right uppercut that took the legs out from under his foe and sent him to the mat.
Ramirez beat the count in a far more timely fashion than that ugly fall would suggest and immediately went back on the attack. Perhaps buoyed by the knockdown, Watts seemed to lower his output and allow Ramirez to get inside with vicious body shots. The wilting onslaught quickly took its toll as Watts offered less and less resistance; in the sixth round, Watts even seemed to intentionally put his head in the line of fire for a rabbit punch to get a reprieve.
The reprieve wasn’t long enough. One round later, Ramirez kicked off a flurry with a right hand upstairs and tore into Watts’ body until the latter took a knee, He took the full ten count, giving Ramirez the KO victory.
Ramirez definitely looked like someone I’d want to watch again; he’s relentless, works the body extremely well, and puts together some lovely combinations. Watts has some sharp hands, but needs to do a much better job of maintaining distance and can’t let opponents do so much in the hopes of a decisive counter.
Mark Anthony Hernandez took on Antonio Urista in the middle feature, a very fun eight-round scrap that featured constant back-and-forth exchanges. Neither man being much of a puncher, the two engaged basically non-stop with rapid combinations and effective body punching.
Hernandez (9-0, 2 KO) wound up winning the majority of those exchanges. His head movement was better, he pitched-and-caught with more success, and the punches he connected with were visibly heavier than Urista’s fire. He ultimately won the fight with a shutout on two cards and 7-1 on the other, which meant the point Urista (7-2, 2 KO) lost for a loose mouthpiece wound up not mattering.
Good times.
The opening bout pitted Cuba’s Leduan Barthelemy against Panamanian veteran Ricardo Nunez. Barthelemy had knocked out his last opponent on PBC and figured to be the favorite.
Ultimately, however, his performance was less Rances and more Yan.
Barthelemy, a ridiculous 6’0″ at featherweight, struggled to keep Nunez at range. Eschewing his jab, he relied on counter uppercuts and check hooks to blunt Nunez’s attack, a strategy that quickly proved ineffective as Nunez repeatedly forced him to the ropes and went to work on the inside. Barthelemy’s superior leverage on his shots failed to overcome Nunez’s volume until the last couple of rounds, when he finally managed to find his range and get his footwork in gear.
Despite this late surge, viewers had Nunez up 79-73 at the bell, which one judge agreed with. The others scored it 77-75 the other way.
This was pretty much a robbery. I had it 77-75 for Nunez and could possibly, if appropriately bribed, find a fourth round to Barthelemy (11-0, 6 KO), but he did not win this fight. Hopefully, Nunez (28-6, 23 KO) will get another shot on American soil and the twenty-seven-year-old Barthelemy will use this as a learning experience.
For quick results and round-by-round coverage, click here.
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