Former Junior Welterweight/Super Lightweight unified champion, American Jose Carlos Ramirez, won in a hard-fought but dominating battle against former IBF Lightweight champion, Ghanaian Richard Commey, and managed to knock his opponent out in the eleventh round of their contest. The two headlined in a WBC Super Lightweight title eliminator as part of an exciting card of fighters that featured Seniesa Estrada and Tina Rupprecht in a unification bout. The event was held on March 25th at the Save Mart Arena in Fresno, California from the USA.
With Richard Commey (30-5-1, 27 KO’s) looking to finally net his first win for a world title in nearly four years, Jose Ramirez (28-1, 18 KO’s) found himself matched against an experienced and former world champion – like himself – who was as eager to claim a world title opportunity against the incumbent WBC champion. With the winner set to face another fighter to eventually become the mandatory opponent of Regis Prograis, both fighters had plenty of motivation to win and this became apparent as the match went on.
The opening round of the contest saw Jose Ramirez drive Commey into a corner for nearly the full three minutes and pressure him endlessly. There was little to nothing that Commey offered but toughness and resilience in the next couple of rounds except for covering himself up on the ropes, and Ramirez surged with combinations nearly every round as he sought to clearly take out the Ghanaian fighter who remained tough and resilient until close to the end of the fight.
Richard Commey tried to counterpunch to the best of his ability but often found himself outmatched, especially later on in the championship rounds. Throughout his fight with Ramirez however, Commey showed outstanding resilience and toughness in taking the shots he had, and did attempt to fight back with good shots of his own.
Commey looked to be at the end of the road after suffering a knockdown within the first minute of the eleventh round. In the closing minute of the eleventh, Ramirez put out all the stops to attempt to finish the fight and managed it with a dangerous set of combinations that left Commey unable to continue after a body shot made him take a knee. As Commey failed to beat the count of ten, the fight was ruled a knockout victory (according to California State Athletic Commission’s rules) for Jose Ramirez.
Jose Ramirez is now set to face WBC champion Regis Prograis in the near future after winning the title eliminator that would make the winner the mandatory opponent for the division’s holder of the WBC title. Regis Prograis currently enjoys the status of being regarded as the #1 Super Lightweight in the world (according to BoxRec), and is on a tremendous four-match stoppage streak with his last match noticeably culminating in a knockout victory over former WBC world title challenger, Jose Zepeda (36-3, 27 KO’s), who suffered his second career loss against Ramirez himself in 2019.
With his latest win, Ramirez is now on a two-match winning streak following his 2021 UD loss to Josh Taylor (19-0, 13 KO’s) in an undisputed title that saw him lose his WBC and WBO titles. His previous match saw him net a clean and decisive unanimous decision victory over Puerto Rican contender Jose Pedraza (29-5-1, 14 KO’s).
In the post-match interview, Ramirez set forth his intention to face any of the current champions in the division. “I want any world champion. Regis Prograis, I want the winner of Josh Taylor and Teofimo (and) get that rematch after that tough loss.
“If Regis is serious about fighting we can sit down, (and) we can negotiate. Let’s sit down and make the fight happen. No more, ‘I’m not a businessman’. You got to learn some business, have your management do their part.“
Ramirez also plans to fight three more times in 2023
As Ramirez has won the WBC title eliminator for the Super Lightweight division, Ramirez is now in perfect position to face Prograis but will first have to contend with fighting another opponent to become the mandatory challenger to the WBC champion. Judging by the position of current contenders on the WBC’s Super Lightweight ranking boards, Ramirez may be matched with Gary Antuanne Russell (16-0, 16 KO’s), Sandor Martin (40-3, 13 KO’s) or Jack Catterall (26-1, 13 KO’s) to determine the mandatory position.
The event further featured other bouts, most prominent amongst them a unification bout between Seniesa Estrada and Tina Rupprecht, with the former grabbing the victory by unanimous decision to subsequently unify the WBA and WBC women’s Minimumweight titles.
