LAS VEGAS – Josh Taylor is convinced he beat Jose Ramirez much clearer than the scorecards showed Saturday night.
All three judges – Tim Cheatham, Dave Moretti and Steve Weisfeld – scored their competitive 12-round, 140-pound title unification fight exactly the same, 114-112 for Taylor. The two knockdowns Taylor produced, one in the sixth round and another in the seventh round, accounted for the difference on all three scorecards in a main event ESPN aired from The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
As thrilled as Taylor is to be boxing’s fifth fully unified champion in any division during the four-belt era, he took issue with the judges’ scores in the post-fight press conference.
“I had absolutely no doubts in my mind [that I won], but them scores were an absolute farce,” Taylor told BoxingScene.com. “Them scores, so if I hadn’t knocked Ramirez down, that’d have been a draw? That’d have been a draw if I hadn’t knocked him down? That’s an absolute joke. You know, I knew they were gonna try that. But I didn’t make too much [of it].
“I kind of made a little complaint to my advisers, but I said, ‘I don’t wanna complain too much because it may rub them off the wrong way.’ And again, you know, if I hadn’t knocked Ramirez down, it would’ve been a draw, which is an absolute disgrace. But I did say it doesn’t matter who the judges is, I was the clear, clear winner in that fight.”
Scotland’s Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) expressed concern to his advisers because Cheatham, Moretti and Weisfeld were the same judges who scored Ramirez’s previous fight, a 12-round, majority-decision victory over Viktor Postol (31-3, 12 KOs) on August 29 at MGM Grand Conference Center. Moretti scored the closely contested Ramirez-Postol fight a draw, 114-114, but Cheatham (115-113) and Weisfeld (116-112) credited California’s Ramirez for winning.
On Saturday night, all three judges had Taylor in front by at least three points following the seventh round, after the IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO champion nearly knocked out Ramirez with a vicious left uppercut.
Taylor was ahead 68-63 on Cheatham’s card entering the eighth round. Moretti and Weisfeld had Taylor in front by the same score, 67-64, through seven rounds.
All three judges scored Taylor the winner of the eighth round as well.
Ramirez’s rally in the later rounds made it closer once they reached the final bell. Cheatham scored each of the last four rounds for Ramirez (26-1, 17 KOs), who won three of the last four rounds on the cards of Moretti and Weisfeld.
The unofficial CompuBox numbers mirrored the judges’ scores.
CompuBox counted just 11 more punches overall for Taylor than Ramirez (145-of-530 to 134-of-584). According to CompuBox, Taylor landed 13 more power punches (129-of-362 to 116-of-388) and Ramirez connected with two more jabs (18-of-196 to 16-of-168).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.