Mario Barrios and Abel Ramos exchange knockdowns, fight to thrilling draw

ARLINGTON, Texas – Mario Barrios and Abel Ramos each scored a knockdown in a tough, grueling fight at AT&T Stadium on Friday that ended in a split draw and with Barrios keeping his WBC welterweight strap.

After a feeling-out round in the first, Barrios, 29-2-1 (18 KOs), began to open up in the second, already controlling the range and keeping Ramos at distance behind a ramrod jab. Ramos, 28-6-3 (22 KOs), was unable to even reach him early, and when a straight right hand from Barrios dropped Ramos toward the end of the second, it seemed as if the man from San Antonio might be in for a comfortable night.

Ramos, however, had other ideas, constantly trying to use his feet to bring himself just that little bit closer, and as Barrios’ jab for some reason began to falter and look less authoritative, Ramos inched closer and closer, slipping inside Barrios’ reach and landing lead right hands. 

By the fifth, Barrios’ jabs had dropped perceptibly, and he seemed to be leaning more on a strategy of sliding backwards a half step and encouraging Ramos to walk onto counters. He was winning, but it was all starting to go a bit flat.

And then, just like that, in Round 6, Ramos put Barrios down, a straight right hand behind a jab catching Barrios square in the jaw and causing him to tumble, and a follow-up right to the temple sending him to the canvas. Ramos spent the rest of the round pursuing him in search of the stoppage, but Barrios survived to the end of the frame.

Even so, the fight now was at a closer range than the taller, longer Barrios would have liked, and Ramos was scoring frequently with hooks and right crosses that had Barrios on the back foot.

In Round 8, Barrios bit down and realized he had to fight his way back into the contest, firing straight punches down the middle as Ramos retaliated with looping punches that he aimed to land behind the Texan’s guard. Ramos was still the one coming forward, but Barrios was now blocking and slipping a fair percentage of the blows that were heading his way. And in the ninth, he was once more letting his hands flow freely, backing up Ramos with a left to the body and a right upstairs and following up with another right cross.

Barrios opened the 10th with another straight left/right combination, but he stood there admiring his work a little too long and Ramos responded with a strong right hand. Ramos continued to be the one coming forward, but Barrios had the crisper, more varied punch output at this point.

Still, though, Ramos wouldn’t be denied, and as the two men came out for the 11th, both their faces were swollen, Barrios bleeding from the nose and mouth and Ramos cut around both eyes. After 12, it was hard to separate the two, although it felt from ringside as if Barrios had done enough to keep his belt – and so he did, although only just. Although one judge saw him a clear winner by the score of 116-110, another had it 114-112 for Ramos, with a third splitting the difference at 113-113.

Opening up the four-fight card on Netflix, Neeraj Goyat, 19-4-2 (8 KOs), scored an easy unanimous decision win against Brazilian influencer Whindersson Nunes over six super middleweight rounds. Goyat is not the most talented boxer ever to lace up the gloves, but he is at least a professional boxer, and he essentially toyed with an overmatched Nunes, 2-3-1 (1 KO), frequently walking away from him to wave at the crowd, which actually seemed to enjoy the contest. Scores were 59-55 and 60-54 twice.

Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcasted about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is www.kieranmulvaney.com.