Ringside Boxing Report: Almazbek Raiymkulov – Jairo Rafael Ramirez
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Boxing promoter Top Rank provided an entertaining fight card on Thursday night at The Orleans Arena, ahead of big boxing weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Almazbek Raiymkulov aka “Kid Diamondâ€, put on an impressive display of power punching, by being the first fighter to stop Jairo Rafael Ramirez inside the distance. Raiymkulov captured the NABF Lightweight Title with the TKO victory at 2:25 of round 7, after scoring 2 knockdowns earlier in the bout. Raiymkulov of Las Vegas by way of Kyrgyzstan, improved his record to 23-1-1(14KO’s), while Ramirez falls to 20-3(7KO’s)
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In an exciting warm up bout to the main event, Fulgencio Zuniga of Colombia scored a controversial split decision victory in a rematch against Mexico’s Jose Luis Zertuche. The two middleweights had battled to a draw back in April of 2005, but this time around one judge had it 97-92 for Zertuche, with the other 2 judges scored it 95-94 for Zuniga in the ten round
affair. Zuniga’s agressiveness and tireless punch output is what secured the victory for him, having thrown over 1000 punches in the bout. Zertuche landed the harder, more effective punches, even dropping Zuniga in the 5th round with a nice counter left hook off the ropes,
but two of the judges were more appreciative of the relentless Zuniga, who certainly had his moments pinning a tiring Zertuche against the ropes and letting his punches fly. Zuniga heads back to Colombia after upping his record to 18-2-1(16KO’s), while Zertuche falls to
19-3-2(14KO’s).
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Other undercard action had tough Jesus Felipe Valverde holding Ahmed Kaddour of former televison “Contender” fame, to an eight round draw in a junior middleweight bout.
Emanuel Steward trained prospect, Irish Andy Lee needed only half a round to dispatch of overmatched Jess Salway with a devestating body punch in a scheduled 6 round middleweight bout.
Contact Mark DeSisto: bostonsmarkd@yahoo.com