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Dmitry Bivol Completely Dominates Ramirez In Boxing Masterclass

Written by Kerr Ferguson on 5th November 2022.

Dmitry Bivol and Gilberto Ramirez

Dmitry Bivol strolled to victory in Abu Dhabi against Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez, capping off an incredible year for the WBA Light Heavyweight Champion.

If Bivol wasn’t already in your pound-for-pound list, he wants you to reconsider. He handed Ramirez his first career defeat with scores of 118-110, 117-11, 117-111.

The fight was threatening to catch fire throughout, but never quite got there for a sustained period of time. Instead, Bivol would tee off and get out of the way of anything coming back. All in all, it was a bit of a showcase performance for the champion, who was punishing when Ramirez left an opening, moved out of the pocket too slowly, or left his hands down for too long. His footwork was teasing – allowing him to rock back and forth, in and out of range.

Ramirez was by no means bad, but his height advantage didn’t translate to being able to reach his opponent’s level. At points, the Mexican seemed slightly drained – likely from both his physical output as well as mentally dealing with the fact that nothing he did would deter Bivol. However he did come on stronger towards the end – it was just too late.

Following his victory, which took him to 21-0, he told DAZN that he wanted to become undisputed. Elsewhere on the card, Chantelle Cameron became undisputed at super lightweight, outboxing Jessica McCaskill who did come on strong in the later rounds but ultimately didn’t show enough.

Zelfa Barrett was on his way to claiming IBF Super Featherweight World title, but Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov’s work proved too much – the Manchester man’s towel came in in the ninth. Campbell Hatton scored a first round knockout via a crisp body shot, not unlike his father, against Denis Bartos, a former flyweight.