Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez defeated Joe Smith this Saturday night during their World Boxing Association (WBA) cruiserweight eliminator fight, which was the highlight of the event hosted by Golden Boy at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Mexican moved up in class and took on one of the good 200-pound contenders to score a 99-91 unanimous decision win by all three judges.
Ramirez was up against an aggressive opponent who was looking for the fight at all times but was able to use his boxing and his distance to keep him at bay, counterattack in a timely manner and score every round of the fight to take the wide lead in the bout.
The Mazatlan native looked well adapted to the division and got an important victory after his loss last year against Dmitry Bivol for the light heavyweight title of the pioneer body.
The 32-year-old “Zurdo” improved his record to 45 wins, 1 loss and 30 knockouts. Smith Jr. now has a record of 28 wins, 5 losses and 22 knockouts.