Zurdo Ramirez successfully answered a lot of questions about how he’d stand up against a “true” cruiserweight tonight in Inglewood, California, outboxing Arsen Goulamirian, taking his power shots with little trouble, and ultimately taking Goulamirian’s WBA belt, too.
It wasn’t an easy start for Zurdo (46-1, 30 KO), with Goulamirian (27-1, 18 KO) making him look uncharacteristically small while stalking him around the ring and against the ropes. And, for a beefy and somewhat plodding fellow, Goulamirian looked bouncier and fresher for the first half of the fight.
Zurdo looked like he may be gassing out in the first three or four rounds in the face of Goulamirian’s best work, but his was the deeper gas tank in the end. Zurdo tilted things in his favor with excellent work in the 5th and 6th rounds, finding openings and timing his power shots.
Goulamirian didn’t adjust once Zurdo found his boxing rhythm, choosing instead to look for the finishing punch that never came. Trainer Abel Sanchez was shown midway through the 11th round throwing his hands in the air in frustration, as Goulamirian could not or would not adapt to Zurdo’s Plan B with one of his own.
It was one round apart after the 7th on my card, but Zurdo just outpointed and outboxed Goulamirian the rest of the way. I had it unofficially 117-111 for Zurdo, with the official scores coming in a notch wider at 118-110 from all three judges. It was a much better fight than the scores might suggest, with quality exchanges and pockets of success for both men in every round of the fight.
Zurdo claims a world title for the first time since holding a 168 pound belt back in 2018, with a sharp performance that has him in the conversation for best non-Jai Opetaia cruiserweight in the world right now.
As for Goulamirian, he exits with his first professional loss, surrendering a belt he held for years but seldom defended. He’s 36 and didn’t fight much even when he had champion status, so no telling if he’ll call it a career, or try to get himself back in the mix in a largely open division.
Alexis Rocha TKO-7 Fredrick Lawson
A solid bounce back performance for Alexis Rocha in the chief support, if not exactly a fireworks show. Rocha (24-2, 16 KO) was in control throughout, but didn’t push for an early finish of Fredrick Lawson.
Waiting for the knockout to come paid off for Rocha, first with a 6th round knockdown, and a flurry where Lawson (30-5, 22 KO) was on the ropes at the end of the 7th that came just shy of a referee stoppage, as you’ll see in the second highlight below. Lawson’s corner ended it between rounds instead, and Rocha claims a TKO victory.
Other results:
- Ricardo Sandoval TKO-8 Carlos Buitrago
- Santiago Dominguez SD-10 Jose Sanchez
- Joel Iriarte TKO-1 Kevin Aguirre