By Ian S Palmer
Undefeated super middleweight contender Gilberto Ramirez of Mexico is all set to take on Derek Edwards of Las Vegas this Friday, June 26 at the State Farm Arena in Hidalgo, Texas. The 10-round bout can be seen in North America live on truTV. The 24-year-old Ramirez enters the fight with a perfect record of 31-0 along with 24 Kos while the 35-year-old Edwards is 27-4-1 and has 14 Kos to his name. This contest is for the Ramirez’s WBO International Super Middleweight Title.
Ramirez is a southpaw and has quite a height for a super middleweight as he stands 6-feeet-3-inches tall and has a reach of 75 inches. Edwards is close to 5-foot-10 and has a 72-inche wingspan. Ramirez turned pro back in 2009 and has fought 177 rounds since then while Edwards has gone 155 rounds since turning pro in 2002. Ramirez possesses pretty good power in his fists and owns a knockout ratio of 77 per cent while Edwards percentage stands at 44.
Ramirez has taken a lot of flak recently for the way he looked last in January in his 10-round decision win over 32-year-old year-old Maxim Vlasov of Russia. Ramirez showed no defensive acumen at all and was nailed time and time again with head shots. It seems that Ramirez gets tagged a lot because he doesn’t use his height to advantage. He refers to work his way inside to engage instead of fighting at a safer distance. Some of his other noteworthy opponents have been Fulgencio Zuniga, Junior Talipeau, and Derrick Findley.
Edwards’ biggest win was a first-round stoppage over Badou Jack in February of 2014 and he feels his experience against better opposition will help lead him to victory over Ramirez. Edwards has been beaten four times already though as he’s been stopped by Matt Korobov and Adonis Stevenson and dropped decisions to Marcus Johnson and Andre Dirrell. However, he showed against Jack that he has enough dynamite in his fists to do serious damage if he catches his opponent clean. He’s also faced the lies of Anthony Hanshaw, Marcus Johnson and Carl Daniels.
Prediction
Ramirez has gone undefeated up to now basically because of his knockout power and the level of opponents he’s faced. He needs to tighten up defensively if he wants to remain unbeaten. To do this he should take better advantage of his height and control the distance in his bouts. If he keeps getting hit flush on the chin he’s going to go down sooner or later. Edwards isn’t a huge puncher, but is still dangerous. He seems to fall short when he steps up in class of opposition though. He’s also been stopped twice which makes his chin somewhat questionable. There could be a knockdown or two along the way and there’s also a good chance it ends in a stoppage. This is a close one to predict, but if Ramirez is the real deal, like Top Rank and Bob Arum believe he is, he’ll come out on top.
