Undefeated lightweight prospect Luis Ramos Jr. (21-0, 9 KOs) won a ten round unanimous decision over Raymundo Beltran (25-6, 17 KOs) on Friday night at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California. Ramos overcame a cut in round three and continued pressure from Beltran to take a 97-93, 97-93, 96-94 win over ten. Beltran, Manny Pacquiao’s primary sparring partner, arguably did enough to win and was furious about the one-sided scoring.
Also, in a war between unbeaten lightweights, Omar Figueroa (14-0-1, 11 KOs) broke down Michael Perez (15-1-1, 9 KOs) with a brutal body attack and Perez could not come out for round seven. Figueroa had problems making weight, but never showed any effects in a very impressive performance.
Heading into the evening – after being on the losing side of many tight distance fights – Beltran had declared, “The judges are my enemies.” Coming out of this evening’s fight, it’s doubtful that his position has changed. As the scores were announced, Beltran listened with disgust as Fritz Werner awarded the bout to Ramos 96-94 while James Jen Kin and Daniel Sandoval scored the contest 97-93 to make the decision unanimous. Fightnews.com scored the bout 96-94 for Beltran.
“I was a little nervous about the decision because I knew it was a tough fight,” said Ramos. “[Beltran] was a tough fighter with a great record but I proved that I could hang in there and take punches.”
Meanwhile, Figueroa stated, “I was a little disappointed. I hit him with all my best shots but he didn’t go down. But I was confident. I never thought I was going to lose. I’ve been asking for tough opponents. I wanted to fight the best and I proved I can deal with this and much more. [Perez] was a tough opponent but that’s what I’ve been asking for.”
All Photos by Tom Hogan – Hoganphotos