Fight Weekend Recap: Canelo, Opetaia defend Straps! Barrios Shines, Ramos Robbed!
Canelo and Opetaia defend titles Barrios Shines Ramos Robbed!
In the evening's biggest fight, Mexican Legend and undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez remained just that as he easily outpointed Houston, Texas native Jermell Charlo who was the undisputed junior middleweight champion.
Charlo refused to engage with the legend for most of the fight and seemed content with losing a decision. Trainer Derrick James pleaded with him to get going, but Charlo would not oblige. Alvarez floored the Texan in Round 7 with a perfectly placed right hand. The taste of Canelo's power seemed to scare Charlo straight, and he refused to engage. Charlo mustered up a bit of offense in rounds five and six and may have won a round or two in there, but his success was few and far between as Alvarez rook a clear and obvious lopsided unanimous decision by scores of 118-109x2 with the third judge scoring 119-108.
In the other major title fight, IBF Cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia made extraordinarily easy work of 6'6 British Challenger Jordan Thompson. Opetaia, a southpaw from Australia, dominated the opening two stanzas and busted open the nose of Thompson in the second. The Australian switched up between conventional and southpaw stances and could not miss with his pinpoint power shots. He dropped Thompson in the third. Following round three, the Brit was warned by his corner they were going to stop the fight. It did little to flip the script as Opetaia dropped his man for a second time and finished the job in 20 seconds of the fourth round to move his record 23-0 (18), and made his first defense of his world title, a successful one.
Barrios, a former 140-pound world champion, walked into the ring a 3-1 underdog against former welterweight champion and Cuban native Yordenis Ugas. It was the second fight for Barrios with trainer Bob Santos, and Barrios made it his second highly-impressive performance.
Barrios showed patience and a more disciplined jab after shaking off a nice body shot. Barrios stayed the course, and that jab scored in the second round and put Ugas down. The 37-year-old Ugas fought back valiantly and scored a right hand that hurt Barrios in the 3rd and landed another big right that affected the Texan. Ugas followed up with a flurry. The fighter seemed even through the midway point. It seemed the fight was up for grabs going into the second half of the fight. El Azteca certainly seized control and dominated the second half of the fight. A right uppercut in the 8th stunned Ugas. Barrios couldn't miss with the right hand as Ugas's eye began swelling. The ringside physician was called in by the referee, who appeared like he wanted to stop the fight, in each of the last three rounds. A fight that likely should have been stopped, by someone, continued into the 12th and final round. The Texan scored another knockdown with a picture-perfect left hook in the 12th. Ugas fired back and had some moments with the right hand. However, Barrios continued to get the best of scoring with some right hands of his own. Ugas was deducted a point for spitting his mouthpiece out. Barrios rolled to a wide unanimous points victory by scores of 117-108 and 118-107x2. The Texan, who picks up the WBC Interim title, which will eventually make him the mandatory for the WBC champion, which is currently Jermell Charlo, out-landed the Cuban 193 of 810 to Ugas's 86 of 277. The Alamo City native improved his record to 2802 (18).
Jesus Ramos, Jr. Middleweight from Casa Grande, Arizona, has been touted as one of the guys who is the future of the sport, and he did just that. Ramos dominated the majority of the fight with Lubin. Ramos started stepping on the gas in the second round, chopping down the body and working on combinations on the inside. Ramos appeared to be putting money in the bank and racking up the rounds before letting off the gas down the stretch. His corner told him he was up and to apply pressure "intelligently," After, a somewhat quiet final stanza, it appeared Ramos won somewhere between 8 and 10 rounds. However, the judges all disagreed, scoring unanimously for Lubin by scores of 115-113, 116-112, 117-111. This will definitely be in the conversation for "Robbery of the Year".
