The joint MVP and Golden Boy card staged on June 28th proved an enlightening affair for the fighters competing on the undercard as several bouts helped dictate the potential and standing of its competitors. Most prominent among these fights was Gilberto Ramirez’ title defense against Yuniel Dorticos which proved to be a tough affair, while Floyd Schofield shocked with his 1st round victory over former world champion Tevin Farmer. The card was hosted at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Gilberto Ramirez vs. Yuniel Dorticos

Billed as the co-main event, Mexican unified champion Gilberto Ramirez (48-1, 30 KO’s) defended both his WBA and WBO cruiserweight (200 lbs) titles against Cuban contender and former world champion Yuniel Dorticos (27-3, 25 KO’s) in a 12-round title fight. Contrasting his dominant win over Chris Billam-Smith during their unification fight last year, Ramirez fought a closer bout with Dorticos than anticipated but did well to ultimately win by unanimous decision (UD) against a tough competitor with plenty of experience.

With Dorticos clearly showing up to seek to win the fight, the 39-year old Cuban contender looked gave the 34-year old Ramirez plenty to think about with his aggression. Both fighters’ workrate was prevalent, exceeding a total of 600 punches thrown with Ramirez proving to be the more effective fighter.

The fight was marked by the lack of explosiveness from both fighters, despite the high rate of activity seen. Gilberto Ramirez proved most effective in slowing Yuniel Dorticos down through his body shots, but lacked efficiency on the defensive side ― culminating in Dorticos landing a percentage of roughly 30%, close towards Ramirez percentage of 36%.

Struggling with many of Dorticos’ punches, Ramirez’ saving grace were his own efforts to outwork Dorticos ― though he only barely managed to do so, landing just 4 more punches than the Cuban challenger. As a southpaw himself, Gilberto Ramirez also struggled with Dorticos’ stance at southpaw ― which clearly posed a multitude of problems through Dorticos’ better use of his jab.

As a result, the early half of the fight was quite close, with Dorticos proving a touch too difficult at points to arguably make the first 6 rounds evenly-sided. However, the latter half saw Dorticos’ age catch up, resulting in him slowing down and Ramirez taking the lead by virtue of better conditioning which was best reflected through his accuracy.

A points deduction for Yuniel Dorticos in the 10th round due to repeated low blows further helped Ramirez chances as he went on to dominate the final round and seal a tight win over the Cuban contender. Judges scored the fight 117-110 and 115-112 twice in favor of Gilberto Ramirez for a unanimous decision (UD) win that allowed him to retain his WBA and WBO cruiserweight titles.

While the victory did not outright signify Ramirez as the best in the division, his chances against WBC cruiserweight champion Badou Jack (29-3-3, 17 KO’s) would see him as the obvious favorite ― though judging by his match against Dorticos a fight against the younger and fitter IBF champion Jai Opetaia (28-0, 22 KO’s) would be considered a step too far.

Undercard fights:

Competing at lightweight (135 lbs), American contenders Floyd Schofield (19-0, 13 KO’s) and Tevin Farmer (33-9-1, 8 KO’s) fought for the opportunity of relevance on the 135-pound ranking boards and it was Schofield who would exceed expectations in one of the most dominant wins of his career.

Though Farmer was coming off two close fights with top lightweight Mexican contender William Zepeda (33-0, 27 KO’s), Schofield came into the match with not a single relevant contender on his resume. With Farmer being the more widely experienced combatant while Schofield represented the ‘young lion’ attempting to gain relevance and standing, the abrupt conclusion to the bout in the 1st round was completely unexpected.

The 1st minute of the 1st round started slow as the two fighters were still feeling each other out, but things changed abruptly after a quick flurry from Schofield that ended with a right hand dropped Farmer ― though he still managed to rise and beat the count of 10. Close to the end of the minute, Farmer was dropped again as Schofield naturally followed up with several blitzing combinations.

Farmer again managed to continue fighting but his defeat was virtually already sealed and as Schofield pounced on him again with another set of combinations, the referee intervened to stop the fight, culminating in a technical knockout (TKO) win for Floyd Schofield.

Whether Tevin Farmer’s resilience through his two fights against William Zepeda may have been a factor in Schofield’s win. Either way, Floyd Schofield can now be regarded as top contender after recording a victory over an experienced former world champion in Farmer who gave the #1 contender of the division, Zepeda, plenty of problems.