Zurdo outpoints Dorticos to retain belts, calls out Opetaia to unify
Schofield crushes Farmer in 1st round; Curiel stops V. Rodriguez in 147 eliminator; J. Rodriguez KOs Griffin with 5 seconds left for upset
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Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez avoided Yuniel Dorticos’ atomic right hand and took over in the second half of the fight to win a unanimous decision and retain the unified WBO/WBA cruiserweight title on Saturday night at Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Ramirez, who made his second title defense in the co-feature of the MVP/Golden Boy DAZN PPV card headlined by Jake Paul-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., won 117-110, 115-112 and 115-112.
Fight Freaks Unite had it 116-111 for Ramirez, who has won four fights in a row since moving up to the 200-pound decision following a one-sided decision loss challenging Dmitry Bivol for his light heavyweight title in November 2022.
“I think it was a good performance,” Ramirez said. “My opponent was tough. He can hit and I did what I did. I did my job and that’s it.”
As for the surprisingly close nature of two of the scorecards, Ramirez was a bit shocked.