Lara batters overmatched O'Sullivan in 8th-round TKO to retain middleweight belt

Ramos, Ramirez win decisions in other PPV undercard bouts

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Erislandy Lara easily retained the WBA “regular” middleweight belt in his first defense with a one-sided, eighth-round demolition of massively overmatched Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan in the co-feature of the Gervonta Davis-Rolando Romero Showtime PPV card on Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Boxing for the first time in 13 months, Lara showed no rust as he battered the far inferior O’Sullivan, knocking him down in the fourth round, bloodying his face and battering him into a decisive stoppage.

The southpaw Lara, a former junior middleweight titleholder, relied heavily on a hard, accurate straight left hand to do most of the damage against O’Sullivan, who had done nothing to warrant a shot at a title and has now been handily defeated all five times he has stepped up in competition. He was knocked out by Lara, Jaime Munguia, David Lemieux, Chris Eubank Jr. and went the distance with Billy Joe Saunders, who won by shutout.

Lara (29-3-3, 17 KOs), a Cuba native fighting out of Houston, has usually been a defensive-minded, slick boxer who relies on movement, but he was more aggressive than usual, perhaps a necessity now that he is 39 and his legs aren’t what they once were. Of course, it also may have been because O’Sullivan (31-5, 21 KOs), 37, of Ireland, was nowhere near his level of ability.

Whatever it was, Lara looked sharp in taking him apart.

“This new style that I’m demonstrating is for all the boxers to show them how I can fight now, just being able to change up,” Lara said a through an interpreter. “He was a tough boxer, too. I’m a smart boxer, a slick boxer, that’s what I did tonight. I waited until he attacked and then I did what I had to do to win the fight.”

Lara scored a hard knockdown late in the fourth round on a pair of left hands that badly hurt O’Sullivan, who was coming off exactly a one-year layoff.

“I saw the opening,” Lara said. “He was leaving himself open and that’s when the left came in and knocked him down.”

He continued to strafe O’Sullivan with clean shots in the fifth round and badly hurt him again with a straight left hand at the end of the seventh round in what was an utterly non-competitive fight.

After Lara landed yet another clean straight left hand early in the eighth round that backed O’Sullivan into the ropes, referee Benjy Esteves waved it off at 23 seconds.

“I saw in the eighth round he didn’t have any more power and that’s when I stepped up and showed my power,” Lara said.

Overall, Lara landed 120 of 370 punches (32 percent), including 109 of his 201 power shots (54 percent), according to CompuBox statistics. He also outlanded O’Sullivan in every round. O’Sullivan landed 67of 314 shots (21 percent).

Ramos outpoints Santamaria

Junior middleweight Jesus Ramos (19-0, 15 KOs), one of boxing’s top prospects, came on strong in the second half of the fight and outpointed Luke Santamaria (13-3-1, 7 KOs) to gain family revenge.

Ramos, a 21-year-old southpaw from Casa Grande, Arizona, won 98-92, 97-93 and 97-93 to derail Santamaria, 24, of Garden Grove, California, who has become known for his ability to score upsets.

One of his upsets came in his previous bout in February, when he won a 10-round decision over former welterweight title challenger Abel Ramos — Jesus’ uncle.

After a slow start, Ramos imposed himself on the smaller Santamaria and began to back him up. Santamaria spent much of the fight in a defensive mode.

“Yes, of course, it was important to avenge my uncle’s loss,” Ramos said. “It wasn’t the way we wanted to win, but I think it takes two to tango and tonight I was the one who wanted to fight. I’m not really satisfied. I could have done a lot better but, like I said, it takes two to tango and tonight Santamaria didn’t want to fight.

“I could have pressed a little more, gone to the body a little more, but he was kind of slippery in there. I didn’t want to risk anything because he would counter so I was trying to stay composed and stay at my distance.”

Santamaria, who also upset former welterweight and junior welterweight titlist Devon Alexander in 2021 in the fight before he beat Abel Ramos, said he thought he did enough to win.

“I thought it was closer than that,” he said. “I thought we got the win. Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way. I moved up in weight. I thought he was going to be stronger than that. I thought we did enough to win the fight. He never hurt me, never felt his power. I was good. I thought he was going to be tough. I’m just as tough as they come.”

Ramirez edges Melendez

In pay-per-view the opener, junior lightweight Eduardo Ramirez (27-2-3, 12 KOs) won a majority decision over Luis Melendez (17-2, 13 KOs).

Ramirez, 29, of Mexico, won a 96-94 and a surprisingly wide 98-92 on two scorecards and one judges had it 95-95.

“The first few rounds were even, but after that he only had his jab,” Ramirez said. “I was able to hurt him. He tried to win going backwards and that's no way to win.”

Miami-based Puerto Rican Melendez, 24, of course, disagreed.

“I felt I won the fight,” Melendez said. “It’s part of the game. You just have to go back and keep training and just come back better.”

There was not much to separate the fighters and not a lot of action. Ramirez did much of his best work going to Melendez’s body. According to CompuBox he held a 79-16 edge in landed body punches.

“I want to fight for the world title next,” Ramirez said. “I'm ready for any of the top fighters. I don't shy away from tough challenges.”

Lara-O’Sullivan photo: Ryan Hafey/PBC; Ramos-Santamaria and Ramirez-Melendez photos: Amanda Westcott/Showtime

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