By Steve Kim
Trainer Freddie Roach was extremely pleased with the recent outing of his undefeated junior welterweight, Jose Ramirez, who last Saturday night at the Save Mart Arena in Fresno, California stopped the unbeaten Mike Reed in two rounds.
It was an eye-opening performance from Ramirez, who isn't known for scoring quick stoppages.
This fight has convinced Roach that his young charge is ready to step up and fight for a 140-pound title.
Ramirez put Reed down with big power punches in the second round. He then followed up with a series of shots as Reed was trapped against the ropes and the fight was stopped.
"I do, I think he fought very well. It was the best fight of his career, he went out there and showed the guy who the boss is,"said Roach, from the Wild Card Boxing Club, earlier this week.
"He took control right away. The body shots worked really, really well for him and it took it's toll on the guy. I thought it was a good stoppage, the guy was hurt really bad and he's definitely ready for that next step."
Ramirez (21-0, 16 KO's) is now slated to face Amir Imam for the vacant WBC crown. The World Boxing Council ordered the two of them to fight each other for the belt - in the wake of champion Terence Crawford's announcement of moving up to the welterweight division.
Imam (21-1, 18 KO's) was in action on the Ramirez-Imam undercard and picked up a TKO win over Johnny Garcia. It was his third victory in a row, by stoppage, after suffering his first career defeat to Adrian Granados in November of 2015.
"Amir Imam is pretty good," opined Freddie Roach, who added, "but I watched his tape a little bit. We're going to take his heart away first and we'll knock him out too."
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.
