Ringside Boxing Report: Jairo Ramirez – Russell Stoner Jones
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Guilty Boxing presented “Guilty Fight Night” at the South Coast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on Friday Night, with the main event a ten round lightweight contest between prospect Jairo Ramirez of San Diego, CA, and Russell “Stoner” Jones of Denver, CO. Ghanian native Jones came in as the more experienced man, having lost decisions to world class fighters such as Joel Casamayor and Zahir Raheem. Ramirez was the more active fighter and simply outworked his tentative opponent to score a 99-91 unanimous decision on all three judges’ scorecards.
Jones had the misfortune of being knocked out in the first round of his last fight against world class lightweight Julio Diaz, perhaps explaining his hesitancy to let his hands go, as he was particularly tight in the first round. Ramirez was busier, but not exactly a punching machine and the early stages of the fight received a few boos from the fans in attendance. Ramirez took advantage of his inactive opponent, often pinning Jones on the ropes in the middle rounds, and scoring with some good body work and combinations. Jones got more comfortable as the fight went on and his punches did have affect when he threw them, often forcing Ramirez to back off from his attack. But it was simply too little, too late for Jones as his record falls to 19-13 (14), while the 24 year old prospect Ramirez improves to 20-2 (7), and gets a chance to increase his level of competition and climb the ranks.
There was some exciting undercard action on the bill as junior middleweights Joaquin Zamora, of New Mexico, and Brazilian Cleiton Conceicao brought impressive records and knockout ratios to their eight round tussle. Both fighters had ended seven of their nine wins inside the distance, so this bout was bound to have some fireworks, and it certainly did, with Zamora scoring an exciting and perhaps controversial stoppage at 1:18 of round six.
Conceiacao used the first couple rounds to figure out his crafty southpaw opponent, while Zamora was more active to take the lead on the scorecards. The fighters opened up by round three and decided to have some nice back and forth exchanges for the crowd to enjoy. Conceiacao found a home for his left hook up top, as Zamora’s eye reddened up quite a bit. Zamora found some success with the straight left and particularly some nice right uppercuts and hooks from his southpaw stance.
Conceiacao appeared to have momentum as he mixed up his power punches and gave as good as he got in rounds five and six. To Zamora’s credit, after absorbing a few heavy shots, he fired back, landing a stunning right uppercut to put Conceiacao against the ropes in the sixth. Referee Toby Gibson appeared to jump in quickly before seeing if Conceiacao could recover from Zamora’s shots, but of course Gibson has a better view than the vocal fans who were hoping for the slugfest to continue. With the hard earned victory, Zamora’s record improves to 10-2-1 (8), while Conceiacao falls to 9-2 (7).
Jairo Ramirez – Russell Stoner Jones
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Joaquin Zamora – Cleiton Conceicao
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Contact Mark DeSisto: bostonsmarkd@yahoo.com