The favorites won on Top Rank on ESPN, but not necessarily in the way they were expected to. In the main event, Jose Ramirez wiped away Mike Reed in only two rounds. That fight was supposed to be an even matchup. Artur Beterbiev won his first title by knockout as expected in the co-main event, but in the inverse of the main event, it took much longer than expected.
Artur Beterbiev (12-0, 12 KOs) has his IBF title and kept his perfect knockout percentage in tact, but it wasn’t pretty getting there. Enrico Koelling (23-2, 6 KOs) of Germany fought a negative fight and made it difficult for the Russian puncher to find him. For while it looked like Beterbiev was going to be content to coast to the finish, but he stepped up the aggression in the championship rounds.
Under the unrelenting pressure, Koelling first took a knee with about a minute left in the fight. It didn’t buy him enough time, however. Beterbiev put him down again and the fight was stopped.
That fight was the main event to the television audience in terms of what was promoted and who most fans were looking to watch, but it wasn’t the actual main event due to the local drawing power of US Olympian Jose Ramirez (21-0, 16 KOs). Ramirez is huge in the greater Fresno area and the atmosphere for his fight showed that off quite well.
Mike Reed (23-1, 12 KOs) didn’t do poorly in the first round. Though Ramirez came out aggressively, Reed showed some slickness and countering. It was all for naught, however. In the second round the local star pushed him against the ropes and unleashed. After an extended onslaught focusing largely on the body, Reed collapsed on the canvas. He rose, but he didn’t fire back against the follow up volley and the fight was stopped.
That was a potential star making performance for Jose Ramirez. He will now move on to a title eliminator against Amir Imam who also won earlier on the card. That is another excellent matchup.
