WBC super lightweight world champion Jose Ramirez made the second defense of his world title in his home venue, The Save Mart Center in Fresno, CA, defeating Jose Zepeda, who was heavily publicized training with his Ramirez’s former coach, Freddie Roach. 

This might have been Ramirez’s toughest test since getting dropped by Johnny Garcia in 2015 in the same bout as Zepeda, boxed well early and won multiple earlier rounds, as Ramirez had to dig deep and will himself to victory. Facing being down four to possibly five rounds, Ramirez stormed back in the second half of the fight with it being capstoned by a flurry of punches in the 12th that more than likely won Ramirez the fight. 

The judges saw the bout razor close as the scores were read 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112, a majority decision in favor of Jose Ramirez. 

Ray Beltran, who trains at Churchill Boxing Club in Santa Monica, turned back time as he put on a fight of the year contender stopping Hiroki Okada in the ninth round of a scheduled ten-round bout, which served as the ESPN opener. The bout saw the two come forward and exchange punches, plenty of punches. Okada hit the mat in the second round, but didn’t detour him from winning plenty of rounds in between. In the end, Beltran had the stronger whiskers as he stopped Okada brutally in a classic bout. 

Beltran now is on the list of future Jose Ramirez opponent for the future in Fresno, CA.

Super bantamweight Carlos Castro secured himself into the top 10 of the division by defeating Genesis Servania by way of ten-round decision. Castro, a veteran of the Iron Boy Promotion cards in Arizona, recently signed with Top Rank and now has a marquee win. Castro was notable for high work rate. 

The judges saw the 98-92, 99-91 and 100-90 all for Castro.

Blue-chip lightweight prospect Gabriel Flores Jr from Stockton, Ca, picked up a six-round decision win over Alex Torres Rynn. The bout saw Flores outpoint Rynn, who stalked Flores Jr. around the ring, but couldn’t close distance to land anything of meaning. 

The judges saw the bout 60-54, 60-54 and 59-55 for Flores Jr.

San Jose, CA’s own Andy Vences defended his WBC Continental Americas super featherweight title against Dardan Zenuanaj in a ten-round bout. 

A sub-plot of the bout was Andy Vences’ former manager Herb Stone who passed away from cancer, faced Stone’s best friend, Freddie Roach in the rival corner in a bout based around cancer awareness. 

Fresno, CA’s own featherweight Isidro Ochoa, who now trains at the famed Robert Garcia Boxing Academy in Riverside, CA, fought six-rounds with Jesus Guzman. The bout was a development fight for Ochoa who was a top amateur fighter, but hasn’t shown his full potential in the professional game. Tonight was a step forward as he picked up a fifth round technical knockout as Guzman’s corner opted for the fight not to continue. 

A Top Rank audition of sorts went about as wrong as it could of as Mexican journeyman Christian Coria didn’t read the script that he was any old opponent as he knocked out former title contender Joel Diaz Jr. in the third round. Diaz Jr. faired well in the first, but after hurting Coria in the second, a more aggressive Diaz Jr. got dropped twice, the second time being having the bout waived off. The time was 1:50.

Christian Coria dropped Hiroki Okada, who fought on this card a got a hotly debated split decision loss to him in the same venue earlier this year.

 2016 Italian Olympian Guido Vianello showed why he he is on a fast-track to big fights quickly as his hand speed was far too much for Andrew Satterfield, whom he dropped in one round, and stopped moments after.