Tonight’s Top Rank on ESPN didn’t excite on paper and the main event went mostly according to script. Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez ate a few more right hands than ideal but he still coasted to another win over an undeserving challenger in the end. Thankfully Alex Saucedo and Lenny Zappa saved the show with an absolute barn burner in the co-main event.
Roamer Angulo (23-1, 20 KOs) was at least trying hard in the opening round. The Colombian came out firing and landed a little out of the gate even. Zurdo Ramirez (38-0, 25 KOs) took over shortly after and landed all the quality shots the rest of the way though. The second was basically identical with Angulo trying hard and touching Zurdo some, but not enough to win the round when weighed against the Mexican titleholder’s body work. The third looked like it was heading exactly the same way, but Angulo landed a beautiful right hand in an exchange that briefly wobbled Zurdo to change the flavor of the fight. Zurdo still controlled the round before and after, but suddenly there was an awareness that Angulo’s power was real. Zurdo’s legs did not look great at the end of round three.
Ramirez’s corner bought him some more time at the start of the fourth by dumping ice on the canvas. Angulo found another nice right hand early in the fourth, but he otherwise didn’t move his hands enough against the titleholder’s high volume attack to win the round. He landed a little more and bothered Gilberto again in the fifth, however, so I gave him that round. The sixth was the opposite and the first round since the second in which the defending titleholder controlled comfortably without issue.
Just when I thought Angulo was fading in the seventh, he came back and landed a damaging hook that gave him control of the fight back for about thirty seconds. Zurdo took right back over though in the eighth on volume. I will say technically he is a regressed fighter even though I am giving him a lot of these rounds. His movement is non-existent at this point. In the ninth for the first time, Angulo slowed down while Ramirez picked up the pace to take another one. I had him up 6-3 going into the last fourth of the fight.
By this point the Colombian title challenger was reduced to throwing one counter at a time here and there. He had exceeded expectations in the fight, but he was also still down pretty big going into the championship rounds. Roamer rallied a little in the eleventh and definitely threw more shots than he had bin at, but it still wasn’t enough. Zurdo just threw so many more punches in the round. The twelfth was the same.
Angulo acquitted himself well here, but not well enough to deserve a decision. I scored the fight 117-110 for Zurdo Ramirez and official cards came back 119-109, 120-108, and 119-109.
In the swing bout, Brazilian 2016 Olympic gold medalist Robson Conceciao (8-0, 5 KOs) rolled over overmatched local Ecuadorian transplant Gavino Guaman (5-3, 1 KO) in three, dropping him four times before the mismatch was mercifully called off. Conceciao is an obvious athlete and very real prospect, but he has been too open in his style. At 29, he has to improve that quickly and seemed to somewhat here with a more measured approach featuring straighter shots.
The co-main event was a wild affair to say the least. After a slow opening four minutes or so, favored local fighter Alex Saucedo (28-0, 18 KOs) began taking over in the second. His momentum carried into the third where Saucedo put his Australian opponent down. The script flipped in the fourth, however, as Lenny Zappavigna (37-4, 27 KOs) came surging back in a huge way in the fourth. He hurt Saucedo very badly and downright battered him for three minutes. The fourth round was a serious beating and an obvious 10-8 round without a knockdown.
Perhaps pushed on by his hometown crowd, Saucedo managed to survive the round and restabilized over the next two to once again have violent control over the fight. The two men were an absolutely bloody mess with Lenny Zappa the worse for wear going into the seventh. Hurt and taking shot after shot, the Australian corner threw in the towel to give the hometown fighter the stoppage win. It was the right decision. What an excellent fight this was, one of the best of the year to date. Both men showed incredible heart and resolve in the ring with Saucedo coming out as an exciting attraction. He probably shouldn’t brawl like this going forward, but it served him here.
