By Cliff Rold

The older brother of middleweight champion Saul Alvarez, 29-year old Ramon Alvarez (23-4-2, 15 KO), 154, of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, kept a ten-bout unbeaten streak going on Saturday night at the Centro De Convenciones, Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico, stopping 37-year old James Winchester (17-12, 6 KO), 154, of Reidsville, North Carolina, in nine rounds. The referee was Cristian Curiel.

It was an oddly entertaining if sometimes ugly affair from the start. Winchester was never really in the fight, losing points for rabbit punching in the sixth and low blows in the seventh, but the American kept clubbing away. Alvarez was the sharper man, digging to the body and catching Winchester clean to the head.

Winchester seemed to be enjoying himself anyways, hamming it up for the pro-Alvarez crowd. After the seventh, he took his time sitting down in the corner, electing first to shout what sounded like a mocking “Viva Mexico” at a fan at ringside and then pelvic thrusting the air to lay an exclamation point on the exchange.

Alvarez laid the antics to rest in the ninth with a massive right to the head. Winchester collapsed over to the bottom rope to the outside of the ring and tripped coming back into the ring as the referee waved the fight off at 2:16 of the ninth. Winchester was fittingly still talking to Alvarez as the fight was called.  The card was televised in the US on BeIn Espanol, promoted by Zanfer.

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene and a member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com