Jesus Ramos is the fighter who moved up in weight Saturday night.
You wouldn’t have known from how he performed against
Shane Mosley Jr. Ramos rocked the game Mosley on several occasions, took his hardest shots in return and won their WBC interim middleweight title bout by unanimous decision on the Isaac Cruz-Lamont Roach pay-per-view undercard at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio.
Ramos (24-1, 19 KOs), a southpaw from Casa Grande, Arizona, won comfortably on the cards of judges Nathan Palmer (117-111), Jesse Reyes (116-112) and Cory Santos (117-111).
Mosley (22-5, 12 KOs), a native of Pomona, California,
demonstrated toughness throughout the first championship match of his 11-year pro career. The taller, longer former super middleweight also got Ramos’ attention several times with clean right hands.
Ramos, 24, still showed that moving up to middleweight was wise. Neither he nor Mosley were ranked by the WBC at middleweight before their bout was surprisingly sanctioned for its interim championship, but Ramos had grown frustrated because he couldn’t get the type of opportunities he wanted at junior middleweight.
Mosley, 34, ended a 17-month layoff. He looked sharp despite fighting for the first time since he defeated former IBF/WBA middleweight champ Daniel Jacobs by unanimous decision in July 2024.
Ramos seemed well on his way to victory, but he unloaded hard shots on Mosley in the opening minute of the 12th round. They traded in the center of the ring with a minute to go.
Ramos buzzed with Mosley with his left hand with just under two minutes on the clock in the 11th. Mosley seemed hurt at that point, but he recovered and showed a quite chin when he took more power punches.
Ramos’ right hook connected a little less than a minute into the 10th. He hit Mosley with a straight left shortly thereafter, too.
Mosley’s counter right landed at the midway mark of the ninth and drilled him with a hard right early in the eighth.
Ramos boxed more in the seventh round.
A clean right hook by Ramos landed with just over 40 seconds to go in the sixth. A right uppercut was followed by a straight left that stopped Mosley in his tracks.
Two lefts by Ramos stopped Mosley from advancing in the fifth. Mosley responded by drilling him with right hands as he pinned his foe against the ropes.
After getting caught with the harder punches entering the fourth, Mosley rocked Ramos with a right hand that backed him up.
Ramos’ right hook nailed Mosley in the third round and went hard at Mosley’s body with left hands in the second.
A straight left by Ramos staggered Mosley a minute into the first round. He responded by landing a right hand that backed up Ramos about 10 seconds later.
Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing