Diamond in the rough!
Kid Diamond dominates Jairo Ramirez for NABF Interim belt; Zertuche-Zuniga steals show, Zuniga steals win in controversy

Ringside by Victor Perea and Albert Howell
Photos by Chris Cozzone

There was no lack of action last night at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas when, on the Top Rank card televised by the OLN network, Kid Diamond gave Jairo Ramirez a rough beating while Jose Luis Zertuche got most of his punches from the judges in his controversial all-out war with Fulgencio Zuniga.

In the main event, the highly-touted Almazbek Raiymkulov, better known as “Kid Diamond,” went up against Jairo Ramirez of Oaxaca, Mexico, for the NABF Interim lightweight title.

Ramirez used his jab to set up punches early on, stealing a slow first round, and allowing Diamond to land but six punches the entire three minutes.

But at 44 seconds of the second round, the fight changed dramatically.

Diamond took his time, not countering with great force in the early second stanza, but waiting for the right opening. A left jab to the body followed by a straight right, by Diamond, did little damage early on. Meanwhile, Ramirez worked his lazy left jab—until a crippling right uppercut by Diamond stopped him in his tracks at :44.

Ramirez plummeted to the canvas and was still visibly shaken when he stood back up at the count of nine. Legless, he clinched and held and hugged to survive the round.

Ramirez recovered well enough to answer the bell for the third round, and he came out fast to land a straight right/left jab-straight/right combination twice more in the first 30 seconds.

Unimpressed, Diamond sat back and waited to counter, then threw, and missed, another uppercut. That was followed up by straight rights that landed clean. Ramirez sought to clinch and Diamond hurt him on the side with hard body work.

A beautiful left jab followed up with a straight right sent Ramirez to the canvas for the second time with only 35 seconds left. Ramirez, not hurt nearly as bad as the first flooring, quickly rose to his feet and finished the round.

Ramirez continued to work in the fourth, using his jab to buy time while avoiding those big counters from Diamond. As the fourth, and fifth, rounds wore on, Diamond’s counters were increasingly effective but he showed patience; knowing he could finish the fight but unwilling to overpursue.

In the sixth, Diamond, now countering with everything in the book, landed uppercuts, straight rights and hooks to the body. Ramirez, growing impatient, opened himself up and got caught with an overhand right with 20 seconds left in the round. Down for the third time, he was rescued by the bell.

Ramirez came out in the seventh, still battling but unable to land anything that worked. Meanwhile, calls from the crowd to stop the fight were directed at Ramirez’s corner.

Diamond was unstoppable. Early in the seventh, a lightning quick straight right opened up a small cut over Ramirez’ left eye. Ramirez looked to referee Jay Nady to pause the bout to have the cut looked at, just as Diamond landed a half-hearted right hand that put Ramirez to his knee.

Ref Nady called time to look at the cut, just as Ramirez’ corner signaled for him to halt the action, at 2:25.

Nady declared Diamond, now 23-1-1, winner by TKO.

 “I give him credit—he’s a strong fighter,” said Diamond, who injured his hand in the second round.

“Only thing, he does not have much experience like I do. I was just getting warmed up, but it’s a good experience for me.”

Ramirez drops to 20-3.

Zuniga-Zertuche steals the night but ends in controversy

Zertuche-Zuniga steals the show, Zuniga steals the fight

In a controversial 10-round war that stole the night, Mexico’s Jose Luis Zertuche was, at least in the eyes of the crowd and those ringside, was robbed of a tough-fought but well-earned victory by Colombian Fulgencio Zuniga.

Although dropping his foe once--almost twice--over the course of a grueling ten rounds, and winning most of the early rounds, Zertuche was outhustled by both Zuniga and the judges with a split decision loss.

The heavy-handed, always-willing Zertuche sat back and let the super aggressive Zuniga shoot blanks to start the bout, ducking and jabbing his way around Zuniga’s slow and sloppy punches.

Zuniga cleanly landed one out of ever ten thrown punches, over-pursuing the patiently-waiting Zertuche, who timed a perfect left hook midway through the first, sending a weak-kneed Zuniga back-pedaling onto the ropes where Zertuche had him hurt. After eating  two more clean hooks—one left, one right—Zuniga, amazingly, survived the barrage on the ropes and danced his way around the ring for the round’s remainder.

Zuniga, again, came out firing inaccurately to begin the second stanza. Zertuche continued to counter, though not as often as during the opening round and most saw Zuniga steal a close round, at least on two of the three judges’ cards.

The third was one of several lopsided rounds in which Zertuche easily countered the ineffective workhorse Zuniga, who continued to throw shot after shot that only hit air or glove.

Zuniga kept the tempo up in the fourth, while Zertuche rested for the entire three minutes, allowing Zuniga to dominate the round.

The fifth round picked up much like the first three, with Zertuche, again, counterpunching, landing his left hook at will and throwing in a straight right for good measure. Countering while on the ropes, Zertuche landed a perfectly-timed left hook just 30 seconds into the fifth round, sending Zuniga to the canvas for the first time.

Zuniga beat the count and was quick to recover, but Zertuche continued to land monster shots, digging into the body with hard hooks.

While Zuniga continued to outwork Zertuche in the volume of punches thrown, he was, most definitely, losing the fight, as far too many of his punches missed—while just as many resulted in a flush counter from Zertuche.

Zertuche took the sixth and seventh rounds with more dominating counter punching while Zuniga found his tiring target more often during the eight and ninth rounds.

Zuniga was winning the ninth, just as a straight right from Zertuche wobbled him to end the round.

Zertuche found his right hand landing five times during the tenth and final round, and landing more effective punches in the first minute of the round than Zuniga landed during the last six rounds.

Still, the judges did not see him winning—at least two of them.

Judge Glenn Trowbridge scored the bout 97-92 for Zertuche, now 19-3-2 (12 KOs), while judges Robert Hoyle and Bill Graham both scored it 95-94 for Zuniga, now 18-2-1 (16 KOs).

Fightnews.com scored the bout 97-93 for Zertuche; while a unofficial poll of ringside media had the closest media scorecard with Zertuche winning by three rounds.

“It was robbery!” said Zertuche, who said he would take on Zuniga a third time if necessary. (“Why not?”) The first, last year, resulted in a draw.

“I knocked him down and landed every punch I threw. I did everything I needed to do to win. I know I won because the fans say so.”

Zuniga threw 1086 landing only 252 (23%) while Zertuche threw 558 landing 212 (38%), according to CompuBox stats.

“I knew it would be a tough fight against Zertuche,” said Zuniga.

“I thought the fight was a very close fight. I could have gone either way. But I am the winner because the judges scored it for me.”

Short work for Lee

Andy Lee (5-0, 3 KOs) earned an impressive first round knockout victory over Jess Salway (2-2-1) in their middleweight bout.

Wearing the colors of the Kronk Gym and with trainer Emanuel Steward and contender Kermit Cintron in his corner, Lee made easy work of Salway.

It was a body shot that ultimately did the damage. A Lee left to the body crumbled his opponent while a left to the head hit its mark as Salway was falling to the floor.

Unable to recover Salway was counted out by Referee Kenny Bayless at 1:34 of round one. Lee keeps his unbeaten streak alive. –Albert Howell

Kaddour not impressive in Top Rank debut

Kaddour was the sharper, more disciplined fighter for the first few rounds, landing a well-timed straight right-left hook combination in the second round. Kaddour scored by countering the shorter, trigger-happy Valverde who missed the majority of his many punches.

Kaddour landed when he remembered to throw, and used his jab well throughout the early rounds.

But 14 months of inactivity began to show in the fourth round when Kaddour started to show the results of Valverde?s hooks to the body. Valverde turned up the pressure and continued to throw in bunches, landing more while being countered less by the now visibly tired Kaddour.

Kaddour caught a bit of a second wind in the seventh round, when he realized he'd given away the previous two or three rounds.

Both fighters came out fast and hard, trading evenly during the final two rounds. Kaddour?s late surge prove enough to win only one of the three judges scorecards, 78-74, as the other two judges scored the bout even 76-76—a majority draw.

Fightnews.com scored the bout a draw.

Perez TKOs De Luz

Super bantamweight Alejandro Perez (6-0-1, 3 KOs) scored a TKO victory over Robert De Luz (7-5, 6 KOs).

In round one, De Luz demonstrated decent footwork. However De Luz’ footwork alone was not enough to keep his foe off of him. By the end of round two Perez was finding his mark with consistency.

By this point in the bout, De Luz was doing everything just to stay away from his foe but to no avail. Perez’ body shots were taking its toll and mitigating any speed advantage De Luz may have possessed early on.

In round four, Perez landed a picturesque right flush on the chin of De Luz. Seeing that he had his adversary severely hurt, Perez unleashed a barrage of power shots.

De Luz fell to the floor. Referee Kenny Bayless stepped in and waved off the bout at 0:38. –Albert Howell

Molina-Chavez: four rounds, four knockdowns

John Molina (4-0, 3 KOs) scored four knockdowns en route to a landslide decision victory over Julio Chavez (6-3-1 2 KOs) in their four round lightweight contest.

Molina scored as many knockdowns as there were rounds.

It was a Molina overhand right at the end of round one that put Chavez on the canvas; in round two, it was a right-left combination; in the third, Molina connected with another of his patented overhand rights flooring Chavez; and in the last round, a Molina left hook to the head did the trick.

The scorecards read 40-32 twice and 40-31, all for Molina in a landslide unanimous decision victory. –Albert Howell

Walkout bout unimpressive

In the walkout bout of the night, cruiserweight Salah Zabian (6-6, 4 KOs) beat Andy Carlton (6-10-3) in unimpressive fashion. Both Zabian and Carlton looked out of shape, and neither possessed any real boxing technique.

In the first round, Zabian connected with a big left hook upstairs that downed his opponent. Carlton took the eight count and the bout continued. In round two, Referee Robert Byrd deducted two points from Zabian for hitting during the break. With Carlton bleeding from the nose, both fighters seemed to take the third round off. The fourth round was nearly as unimpressive as the third.

The scorecards read 38-35 twice and 37-36, all for Zabian by unanimous decision. –Albert Howell

Bonus shots!