By Michael Rosenthal
CARSON, California – Abel Ramos outpointed Francisco Santana in a 10-round fight for relevance in the welterweight division on the Shawn Porter-Yordenis Ugas card Saturday.
Santana stalked Ramos most of the fight and landed some eye-catching punches – including a left that put the Arizonan down in the second round – but Ramos used his superior boxing skills to keep Santana at bay and score with more consistency.
The scores were 95-94, 97-92 and 98-92, all in favor of Ramos.
By then, barring a knockout, it was too late. Ramos had built an insurmountable lead.
"I thought I won the fight,” Ramos said. “I landed more punches. I felt like I was landing all night and I was doing good clean work throughout the fight."
Ramos (24-3-2, 18 knockouts) has now won six consecutive fights since he lost a majority decision to Jamal James, a run he hopes will lead to big fights in the deep 147-pound division.
Santana (25-7-1, 12 KOs), from Santa Barbara, California, generated some excitement after consecutive losses by upsetting Olympic champion Felix Diaz in his previous fight but will now have to rebuild.
"I was very surprised by the scorecards,” Santana said. “I thought I did enough to win. It was very competitive but I was landing more significant punches. … I knew he was a warrior who would come back to fight after the knockdown. I don't know what else to do at this point, but I'll always keep my head held high."
