WBA cruiserweight champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez (47-1, 30 KOs) was too busy, too skilled, and too mobile for the heavy-handed WBO champion Chris Billiam-Smith (29-2, 13 KOs), beating him by a grueling 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday night at The Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
(Credit: Golden Boy/Chris Esqueda)
The fight came down to Ramirez, 33, using his trademark high-volume fighting style and his nifty footwork to overwhelm Billiam-Smith. It could have been closer if Billiam-Smith could handle Ramirez’s movement, which wouldn’t have been hard for a fighter adept at dealing with that. Billiam-Smith was too slow to move his feet to stay with Ramirez.
Billiam-Smith was cut in the fourth from what appeared to be a right hand from Ramirez. Although the cut was ruled to have been caused by a clash of heads, it didn’t look that way.
The scores:
116-112
116-112
116-113
Ramirez said that after the fight, he wants to fight IBF champion Jai Opetaia next. However, that’ll be up to his promoters at Golden Boy and His Excellency Turki Alalshikh if they want to go in that direction. If not Opetaia, Ramirez can face WBC champion Noel Mikaelyan in a unification, and then fight Opetaia for the undisputed if he makes it to that match.
William Zepeda Beats Tevin Farmer
#1 ranked lightweight contender William Zepeda (32-0, 27 KOs) beat Tevin Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs) by a tougher-than-expected 10-round split decision to win the WBC interim 135-lb title.
Zepeda was surprisingly dropped by a left-hand from Farmer in round four from a shot that he didn’t see company. He wasn’t hurt and got up and continued to control the round, but it brought a brief bit of drama to the contest.
The DAZN commentators made a big production about the knockdown and were giving Farmer a lot more credit than he deserved. It was a one-sided fight for the most part, and the flash knockdown by Farmer was his only bright point in the fight.
Other than that, Zepeda was on his backside, burying him with activity, forcing him to spoil by holding constantly, and limiting him to brief stuff, much of it in the last 10 seconds of every round. Farmer was using that old trick to impress the judges and try to steal the rounds after being outworked for the first 2:50 seconds by Zepeda.
The scores were 95-94, 95-94 for Zepeda, and 95-94 for Farmer. Zepeda will now fight WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson in February, provided the match can be negotiated and there are no injuries.
The shots that Farmer took tonight from Zepeda, it’s unlikely Shakur could withstand the same amount of abuse. I’ve never seen Farmer take the kind of hard head and body shots that he absorbed from Zepeda in any of his fights. You could tell that Farmer really needed this win, and he gave it all he could.
Even after the fight, Farmer was still in denial about his loss, saying he should have won. Nah, Farmer, you didn’t win, and you’re lucky the judges didn’t give Zepeda credit for all the body shots he was hitting you with because you would have lost nine rounds to one tonight. The judges clearly weren’t giving Zepeda credit for his shots to the midsection; they were only dialed in when counting the headshots.
Arnold Barboza Jr. Victorius Over Jose Ramirez
Former unified light welterweight champion Jose Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs) looked old tonight, losing to unbeaten #1-ranked Arnold Barboza Jr. (31-0, 11 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision in a WBO 140-lb title eliminator.
Barboza was in control the whole step of the way, using his spearing shots to pick off Ramirez to outbox him. Ramirez tried to make a late rally, but Barboza Jr shut him down with his jab and one-two combination punching.
The scores were 97-93, 96-94, and 96-94. The loss for Ramirez is the second of his career. He was beaten three years ago by Josh Taylor by a 12-round decision in a unification fight, and he’d been taking tune-ups ever since.
