In another excellent edition of Top Rank boxing on ESPN we had a card that featured a bit of everything. There was a somewhat major upset, a new force at 140, and Michael Conlan. On the undercard Felix Verdejo the once top tier prospect who has seemed to completely stalled with injuries, vehicle accidents and inactivity was back in action against unknown Antonio Lozada. The fight was going Verdejos way and he was seemingly up by a few rounds going into the 10th and final round. Then disaster, Verdejo was caught and knocked down with about 40 seconds left in the fight. He got up looking shaky and Lozada went after him connecting with enough clean shots that the ringside Doctor stepped up onto the canvas to stop the fight with 20 seconds left. Verdejo's corner was absolutely livid over the doctor stepping in and they had somewhat of an argument. I felt that they could've let the fight play out but it wasn't an especially outrageous stoppage. Felix was hurt and was taking clean punches but he was still on his feet and not completely defenseless at the time of the stoppage. For Lozada this is a huge win and puts him on the scene at the very competitive and exciting 135lb standings. He really ground out this fight and when he had his opportunity he went for it. Verdejo on the other hand was handed his first loss as a pro and it is crushing for his career which already had been in somewhat dire straits is now further set back. When he was being featured on HBO a few years ago he looked every bit like the next Tito Trinidad. Now I don't want to completely write him off after only one loss he is only 24 and definitely has talent but unless he makes some changes I think he may be the next busted prospect.
In the main event Albany's own Amir Imam squared off against Jose Ramirez. Both guys are young up and comers looking to make their mark at 140 which maybe the most interesting division right now in terms of belt holders with Terrance Crawford moving up to 147. Imam started out sticking the jab and taking control of the distance in the center of the ring giving Ramirez issues when he was trying to close the distance. After having his way for the first third of the fight Imam abandoned the jab and started to back into the ropes in response to the relentless pressure of Ramirez. In close Ramirez banged up Amir to the body and was able to hurt him a few times with overhand rights thrown over slow jabs in close from Amir. Late in the fight there were some great exchanges but they never turned out to benefit Amir. Both fighters closed the fight strong but Ramirez was consistently getting the better of the exchanges and steadily built up a good lead on points leading to a wide UD win on the scorecards. This fight had shades of Amir's stoppage loss to Adrian Granados as Ramirez employed a similar steady pressure that wore Imam down and never let him get too comfortable. Amir when he worked the jab at range was able to control the pace and distance of the fight but he never put the right hand behind it. Ramirez is now a title holder at 140 and joins newly minted belt holders Mikey Garcia and Kiryl Relikh.
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