Unbeaten featherweights Leduan Barthelemy (13-0-1, 7 KOs) and Eduardo Ramirez (20-0-3, 7 KOs) fought to an exciting split draw in their 10-round brawl that headlined Premier Boxing Champions TOE-TO-TOE TUESDAYS on FS1 and BOXEO DE CAMPEONES on FOX Deportes Tuesday night from the Cannery Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
The back-and-forth battle saw Barthelemy attempt to take advantage of his length early while Ramirez fought hard to do damage on the inside. By round four, Ramirez had begun to break through Barthelemy’s defense and by the sixth round he connected with Barthelemy repeatedly with no response to score a huge round in his favor.
“I wanted to pressure him all the way through and take away his reach advantage,” said Ramirez. “I felt good the whole fight and he never hurt me at any point. I believed in my skills and I performed well.”
“It was a very tough, physical fight for both of us,” said Barthelemy. “I didn’t feel 100 percent but I was able to work through it and I never felt hurt during the fight. He landed on me but I was able to keep my composure.”
Barthelemy was able to recover and began to stifle Ramirez’s aggressiveness by pivoting effectively and landing punches from different angles. By the final round, the two fighters resorted to brawling on the inside, with both men landing big punches all the way to the final bell.
In the end the judges’ scores reflected the close nature of the bout as one judge scored the fight 97-93 for Barthelemy while another judge scored the bout 96-94 for Ramirez. The fight was declared a split draw after the final score was announced as 95-95.
“I would definitely fight him again,” said Barthelemy. “I’ll be ready for another great battle and I’ll get the clear victory this time.”
“I thought that I won the fight, it was a close fight but I believe that I did what I had to do to win,” said Ramirez. “I would fight him again and beat him even worse.”
Additional action saw once-beaten Alejandro Salinas (9-1, 8 KOs) was able to earn a unanimous decision over rugged brawler Duarn Vue (12-1, 4 KOs) in their eight-round super featherweight contest.
The fight was defined by close quarters exchanges that began right after the opening bell as Vue charged Salinas and tried to navigate the distance and brawl with Salinas. The tide quickly turned for Salinas who established his right hand and connected several times cleanly with Vue’s head.
Vue did not stop attacking and forced Salinas to vary his attack and add in uppercuts and left hooks with his effective right hand. While Vue was able to tag Salinas as he tired into the later rounds, it was not enough to come back in the minds of the judges as all three scored the bout for Salinas by scores of 80-72, 79-73 and 77-75.
The opening bout saw Bryan Figueroa (13-0, 5 KOs) remain unbeaten and win a close decision over Ivan Jimenez (7-1-1, 4 KOs) in their six round lightweight fight.
Figueroa took his time early trying to utilize his height advantage to strike Jimenez from a distance and in round three he connected on a hard left hand that backed up and staggered his opponent. Jimenez was able to stay on his feet, and had success at times getting on the inside and hitting Figueroa with hooks, but was not able to land consistently enough.
The fiery exchanges continued through the sixth and final round with Figueroa eventually earning the decision on all three judges’ scorecards by the score of 58-56.
