Robeisy Ramirez Back in Win Column, Wants Rafael Espinoza Rematch Next

One fight and six months after losing his WBO featherweight title by majority decision to Rafael Espinoza, Robeisy Ramirez knocked out Brandon Leon Benitez on Saturday at the James L. Knight Center in Miami Beach, Florida, to move back into the win column.

After spending the first two rounds sizing up his opponent and touching him with his southpaw jab, Ramirez (14-2, 9 KOs) began to put some heft behind his punches in Round 3, hurting Benitez early with a right hook-left cross combination. 

By the fourth, the two-time Olympic gold medalist was in complete control, bobbing and weaving to slip under Benitez’s punches and respond with fast counters, and standing in the pocket to fire lead left uppercuts that flashed through Benitez’s guard.

A three-punch counter combination in the fifth rocked Benitez’s head back, and by the sixth Benitez (21-3, 9 KOs), realizing he was falling far behind, stepped forward into his own punches in an attempt to stem the tide.

It was a brave decision but served only to walk him more directly into Ramirez’s line of fire. In the seventh, Ramirez snapped back Benitez’s head with a series of punches, walked backward toward the ropes and then launched another left uppercut that left Benitez’s head rolling on his neck and caused his body to slump. A follow-up right hand sent Benitez to the canvas, from which he could not rise before the count of 10.

Afterward, a beaming Ramirez said he hoped to meet Espinoza again next. 

“Ultimately, my goal is to unify the belts, but first I have to get a belt,” he said. “So if I can get the rematch with Espinoza, that’s the first step.”

In the opening bout of the ESPN broadcast, Nico Ali Walsh survived a dislocated left shoulder to eke out a unanimous decision win over Sona Akale and avenge his lone professional defeat. 

Walsh (10-1, 5 KOs) won the first three rounds of a scrappy, hard-fought contest, dropping Akale with a hook in the third, before the shorter Akale (9-2, 4 KOs) bulled his way inside and repeatedly rocked his more famous foe, the grandson of Muhammad Ali, over the back half of the six-round fight. The knockdown proved to be the difference, as Walsh won by scores of 58-55 and 57-56 twice.