INGLEWOOD, California – John “Scrappy” Ramirez first pounded the body and then took the head to pull off a resounding fourth-round knockout victory against Ronal Batista on Saturday night.
Ramirez (13-0, 9 KOs) battered Batista (15-3, 9 KOs) and dropped him twice in the fourth round. The first knockdown was delivered with a debilitating left hook to the body, and the second followed after a flurry of punches to the head. A Ramirez right hand ultimately left Batista crumbled on the canvas, forcing referee Jack Reiss to immediately wave off the fight at the 2:33 mark of the round.
The bout fight was a WBA super flyweight title eliminator for the belt currently held by Kazuto Ioka.
“We’ve been drilling with my coaches on attacking the body. I saw the opportunity and I got it,” said Ramirez, who was cornered by trainers Julian Chua and Malik Scott. “We stayed focused and got the results we wanted. Ioka, I’m coming baby.”
The bout served as the co-feature to the Golden Boy Promotions card on DAZN headlined by welterweights Alexis Rocha and Giovoni Santillan at The Kia Forum.
After a timid start through the first two rounds, Ramirez picked up the pace in the third and rocked Batista, battering his counterpart with a barrage of heavy punches – straight rights and uppercuts were seemingly landing at will.
Batista was eating the punches and backpedaling and firing back with very little.
The 27-year-old, Los Angeles-born and bred Ramirez continued rocking Batista to begin the fourth to ultimately set up his showstopping finish.
Ramirez improved to 3-0 in 2023 and was fighting for the first time since signing a promotional deal with Golden Boy.
The Panamanian pugilist Batista was coming off a competitive loss against Julio Cesar Martinez in which he faded late and was stopped in the 11th round.
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer, and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com, or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.