Gilberto Ramirez Retains WBO Super Middleweight Title With TKO Win
Gilberto Ramirez, the WBO super middleweight champion and one of Top Rank’s top fighters, made his case as the best 168-pound boxer in the world with another dominant performance on ESPN.
Ramirez headlined the first Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card of 2018 with a sixth-round TKO win over Habib Ahmed. The fight took place in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Ahmed was the true definition of a wild card, coming into the fight with an undefeated record but having fought mostly in Ghana against low-level competition. Ahmed had not faced an opponent of Ramirez’s caliber and Ahmed was overwhelmed almost from the start of the contest.
The challenger could not get much going and his awkward style led to an accidental headbutt in the third round. The headbutt did not seem to bother Ramirez too much in the long run as he continued to fight undeterred as he looked for a knockout win. Ramirez got that in the sixth round with a stoppage.
According to CompuBox, Ramirez landed more punches in the final round (29) than Habib Ahmed landed in the entire fight (22). It was Ramirez's first stoppage win since a TKO victory in the eighth round over Fulgencio Zuniga in 2014.
With the win, Ramirez sets himself up for a potential unification bout against any of the other world champions at 168 pounds, including the winner of the World Boxing Super Series, who is expected to hold both WBA and IBO titles. WBC champion David Benavidez and IBF champion Caleb Truax are the other two super middleweight world champions.
