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Jesus Ramos beat his best opponent to date Saturday night, but Javier Molina took the 20-year-old knockout artist past the sixth round for the first time in his career.
The strong southpaw pressed the action and landed the harder punches throughout their 10-round bout, though, and thoroughly beat the durable Molina. Judges Max De Luca (97-92), Lou Moret (99-90) and Zachary Young (99-90) all favored Ramos, who won a unanimous decision in the pay-per-view opener on the Andy Ruiz Jr.-Chris Arreola undercard at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
Ramos (16-0, 14 KOs), a welterweight prospect from Casa Grande, Arizona, went the distance for just the second time since he made his pro debut in May 2018. The 31-year-old Molina (22-4, 9 KOs), a 2008 U.S. Olympian from Norwalk, California, has not been knocked out in any of his 26 professional fights.
Molina landed his fair share of punches, but he didn’t have the power to affect Ramos.
It appeared clear by the 10th round of this junior middleweight match that Molina would take Ramos the distance.
Molina mostly slipped Ramos’ punches in the 10th round, though he didn’t land many noteworthy punches in that final round, either. Molina drilled Ramos with a straight right a minute into the ninth round.
A straight left by Ramos connected with just over two minutes remaining in the eighth round. Ramos continued to land the flusher punches during those three minutes.
Ramos landed two lefts to Molina’s head just before the halfway point of the seventh round. Referee Gerard White deducted a point from Molina late in the seventh round for hitting Ramos behind his head.
White warned Molina and Ramos for rough tactics earlier in the seventh round.
Molina’s left hook caught Ramos with 1:40 to go in the sixth round, but he couldn’t keep Ramos from coming forward. Molina landed another left hook with about 45 seconds on the clock in the sixth round.
Molina snuck in a right uppercut with just under a minute to go in the fifth round. Ramos hammered away at Molina’s body later in the fifth, but Molina caught him with a right hand just before that fifth round ended.
Ramos made Molina retreat after landing a left to the body with just under two minutes left in the fourth round. His relentless pressure kept Molina on his back foot again in the fourth round.
Ramos connected with another left to Molina’s body toward the end of the fourth round.
Ramos landed a hard left to Molina’s body with 1:10 to go in the third round. The powerful Ramos began landing hard shots to Molina’s head during that third round as well.
Ramos drilled Molina with a left hand that snapped back his head with just over a minute remaining in the second round. Molina went down 19 seconds into the second round after their legs got tangled.
Molina moved out of Ramos’ punching range throughout the first round. Ramos provided plenty of pressure in those opening three minutes, but he didn’t land many clean punches.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.