By Ian S Palmer
Former WBC Lightweight Champion Omar Figueroa of Weslaco, Texas will be taking on Abel Ramos of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in a 12-round welterweight tilt this Saturday, May 1st. The fight from Carson, California can be seen live in North America on Fox Pay Per View on the undercard of the Andy Ruiz vs Chris Arreola fight while those in the UK can see it live on BoxNation and Premier Sports. Figueroa last fought in July, 2019 when he was beaten for the first time by dropping a 12-round slugfest to Yordenis Ugas. Ramos also fought Ugas in his last outing, which resulted in a split decision loss last September for the vacant WBA Welterweight Title.
The 30-year-old Figueroa will enter the ring with an impressive record of 28-1-1 with 19 Kos to his name. He’s a fan-friendly action boxer who also has good power with a current knockout ratio of 63.3 per cent. However, he’s fought just three times since December, 2015 and had an 18- months layoff in there. And because of Covid-19, he hasn’t fought in almost two years now. Figueroa’s relatively short for a welterweight at just over 5-feet-7-inches tall, but has a decent reach of 73 inches. .
Figueroa is a former WBC World Lightweight Champion who turned pro back in 2008 and has 148 rounds under his belt since. The only other blemish on his record is an eight-round split decision draw with Arturo Quintero in 2010. He’s beaten some decent boxers along the way including John Molina. Robert Guerrero, Antonio DeMarco, Jerry Belmontes, Abner Cotto, Nihito Arakawa, Daniel Estrada and Ricky Burns, with several of them being all-out slugfests. Figueroa is an action-packed fighter who’s pleasing on the eye and just keeps throwing punches until the job’s done.
His fight against Nihito Arakawa in the summer of 2013 saw Figueroa land 450 of his power shots, which ranked fourth all-time by Compubox at the time when it comes to volume. He also caught a lot of leather in that bout and proved he’s got a solid chin. Figueroa doesn’t back down once the bell rings and likes to be the aggressor but he can’t take Ramos lightly since he’s a fine opponent even though he doesn’t necessarily come into a fight with the same aggressive mentality as Figueroa.
Ramos is 29 years old with a record of 26-4-2 and has boxed 150 rounds since making his pro debut in 2011. He now fights out of Arizona and beat Jame Herring and George Rincon as an amateur while losing to Amir Imam. Ramos is 5-feet-9-inches tall with a 69-inch reach which puts him 1.5-inches taller than Figueroa but he’s got a four-inch reach disadvantage.
As far as power goes, Ramos has enough of it to cause damage as his current knockout ratio stands at 62.5 per cent. He’s got a decent chin although he was stopped by Regis Prograis in the eighth round in 2015 for the vacant NABF Junior Super Lightweight Title. He was beaten by Ivan Baranchyk by 10-round unanimous decision in 2017 for the USBA Super Lightweight Title and was dropped a couple of times.
He also dropped a 10-round majority decision to Jamal James in 2018 while his draws were an eight-round affair with Maurice Hooker in 2014 and a six-round tilt with Levan Ghvamichava the same year. As we can see, when Ramos steps up in class he usually falls just short and he’ll be stepping up in class again against Figueroa on Sunday night. His biggest wins have been against the likes of Bryant Perrella, Roberto Ramirez, Mario Hermosillo, Javier Mercado, Emanuel Robles, Francisco Santana and Jimmy Williams.
Prediction…
This could be another in a long line of Figueroa slugfests and one wonders how much has been taken out of him at this stage. He gave it his best against Ugas but it just wasn’t enough that night. This is basically a must-win for him if he hopes to retain his status as a top contender and land another title shot. Ramos doesn’t mind going toe-to-toe either and even though Figueroa has the reach advantage he may not elect to use it as he usually works his way inside and throws non stop punches. This fight can go either way but I think if Figueroa lets his hands fly all night long then Ramos will have a hard time keeping up with him.
