Jose Ramirez outworks Rances Barthelemy to win decision, Vergil Ortiz scores one-punch KO

Jose Ramirez’s night wasn’t perfect but he got the job done in front of his hometown fans.

The 140-pound contender survived a number of nasty left hands from Rances Barthelemy to win a one-sided decision in a 12-round over-the-weight bout Saturday night in Fresno, California, not far from the winner’s hometown of Avenal.

The official scores were 119-109, 119-109 and 118-110. Boxing Junkie also scored it 118-110 for Ramirez, 10 rounds to two.

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Jose Ramirez and Rances Barthelemy went to ???????????? for 12 rounds Ramirez getting the win tonight in his Golden Boy debut #RamirezBarthelemy | #OrtizDulorme | LIVE on DAZN April 27 pic.twitter.com/cGoKFYQ2zD

— Golden Boy (@GoldenBoyBoxing) April 28, 2024

“It wasn’t the best performance of my career,” Ramirez said. “I think I got overly excited. … I could hear people screaming my name, I could see familiar faces at ringside. So there were many times during the fight I was distracted.”

Ramirez (29-1, 18 KOs) won the fight by outworking his 38-year-old opponent from beginning to end, particularly non-stop body work that seemed to wear Barthelemy down by the end of the one-sided, but interesting fight.

Barthelemy (30-3-1, 15 KOs) kept it competitive by landing a number of hard left hands throughout the bout that either stung or hurt Ramirez and kept the possibility of an upset alive.

The third round was wild, as Ramirez, who had taken a particularly hard left, hit the canvas and Barthelemy punched him several times before he was able to get up. Referee Jack Reiss ruled that Ramirez went down from a push. And he warned Barthelemy for his foul.

“During that moment in that round,” Ramirez said, referring to the first left, “I got distracted and got hit with one punch. It motivated him. If I didn’t get distracted, if that wouldn’t have happened, I think I would’ve broken his spirit.

“I think that punch of his kind kept him in the fight, kept him believing he could probably do it again. That was a lesson for me.”

It was almost all Ramirez after that. The former beltholder smothered Barthelemy, pounding him on the inside and taking little in return. And he seemed to be more careful about taking the punishing lefts, although Barthelemy still slipped some of them through Ramirez’s defense as the fight progressed.

An exhausted Barthelemy seemed to be on the verge of being stopped in Round 11, after which Reiss warned him for in activity. The Cuban gave a good effort in the final round to finish on his feet.

The CompuBox stats told the story. Ramirez landed 255 of 854 punches, Barthelemy only 112 of 439. Barthelemy landed a high percentage of his power punches (47.4%) but Ramirez outlanded him almost 2-1 in that department, 194 to 101.

Ramirez, who hadn’t fought in 13 months, has fought only three times – all victories – since he lost his belts to Josh Taylor by a close, but unanimous decision in 2021.

He hopes to stay more active under new promoter Golden Boy going forward so he can prove he remains among the best 140-pounders.

“I’ll fight anybody at 140,” he said. “I just want to be active. I don’t want to sit around. Whoever Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions, the whole staff, and my team has in mind, no matter who it is, I’m ready to fight anybody.

“A fight like that, you don’t look your best, you stay motivated in the gym and you become a different animal. That’s what I want to do.”

In the co-feature, 154-pound contender Vergil Ortiz knocked out veteran Thomas Dulorme with a single left to the body only 2 minutes, 39 seconds into a scheduled 12-round bout.

Ortiz, who was coming off a first-round knockout of Fredrick Lawson in January, has stopped all 21 of his opponents.

The fighters were still getting warmed up when Ortiz connected on the body shot, which sent Dulorme to the canvas in great pain. The Puerto Rican remained down when the referee reached the count of 10.

The victory sets up a meeting with former 154-pound titleholder Tim Tszyu on the Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov card on Aug. 3.

Dulorme (26-7-1, 17 KOs), a former title challenger, has lost four of his past four fights.