A familiar group of officials will work the Jose Ramirez-Josh Taylor fight Saturday night in Las Vegas.
BoxingScene.com has learned that the Nevada State Athletic Commission has assigned judges Tim Cheatham, Dave Moretti and Steve Weisfeld to score their 140-pound title unification fight. Kenny Bayless will be the referee for the 12-round bout between Ramirez (26-0, 17 KOs), of Avenal, California, and Taylor (17-0, 13 KOs), of Prestonpans, Scotland.
All three of those judges scored Ramirez’s most recent fight – a 12-round, majority-decision victory over Viktor Postol on August 29 at MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas.
Bayless, Cheatham and Moretti reside in Nevada. Weisfeld is from New Jersey.
Moretti and Weisfeld are among boxing’s most experienced judges in high-profile fights. Bayless also is one of the sport’s most experienced referees in top-level events.
Cheatham has become a prominent judge in recent years.
He most recently worked the Canelo Alvarez-Billy Joe Saunders match May 8 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Cheatham had Alvarez ahead 77-75 through eight rounds.
Judges Max De Luca and Glenn Feldman both gave Alvarez one more round than Cheatham. They had him ahead 78-74 when Saunders’ trainer, Mark Tibbs, stopped their scheduled 12-round, 168-pound title unification fight following the eighth round because Saunders suffered multiple fractures to the orbital bone around his right eye.
Taylor has fought just three times in the United States. None of the officials assigned to the Ramirez-Taylor bout have worked any of Taylor’s 17 professional fights.
Moretti scored Ramirez’s closely contested defeat of Ukraine’s Postol (31-3, 12 KOs) a draw, 114-114. Weisfeld scored eight rounds for Ramirez (116-112) and Cheatham scored seven rounds for the unbeaten WBC/WBO champion (115-113).
Russell Mora was the referee for the Ramirez-Postol bout.
Cheatham previously judged five of Ramirez’s non-title fights early in his career. Moretti worked one of Ramirez’s non-championship bouts.
His win against Postol is the only Ramirez match Weisfeld has judged.
Taylor, 30, and Ramirez, 28, will fight for Ramirez’s two titles and Taylor’s IBF and WBA belts in a main event ESPN will televise from The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
ESPN’s three-fight telecast will start at 8 p.m. EDT with an eight-round bout in which Dominican junior welterweight prospect Elvis Rodriguez (11-0-1, 10 KOs) will encounter Chicago’s Kenneth Sims Jr. (15-2-1, 5 KOs). Junior welterweight contender Jose Zepeda (33-2, 26 KOs, 2 NC), of La Puente, California, will face Philadelphia’s Hank Lundy (31-8-1, 14 KOs) in the 10-round co-feature.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
