Gilberto Ramirez vs Chris Billam-Smith

The Riyadh Season saw a Latino night and Gilberto Ramirez added the WBO cruiserweight title to his WBA belt when he picked up a high-profile points win over Chris Billam-Smith.

Ramirez (47-1, KO30), a former WBO super middleweight champion, moved to cruiserweight last year and captured the WBA belt by one after a wide points victory over Joe Smith Jr Ten rounds to two defeats against Arsen Goulamirian in March. Billam-Smith (20-2, KO13) narrowly won the WBO title Decision victory over Lawrence Okolie in May last year and the last time in June when he took revenge on Richard Riakporhe with a points win at Selhurst Park.

Billam-Smith got off to a very good start in the opening round, landing several solid punches, but Ramirez found a groove in the second round, landing a sharp left that had the Englishman buzzing and his combinations bothered the WBO boss . By the fourth punch, Billam-Smith had the blood running from his nose as Ramirez landed a great right hand punch and some impressive combinations to the body, flooring his opponent with the sheer volume of punches he landed.

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This fight is heating up! 🔥

Great combinations from both fighters 💥 X |

— Sky Sports Boxing (@SkySportsBoxing)

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Ramirez stayed on the accelerator as the doctor took a look at Billam-Smith's eye before the seventh round and although the Bournemouth man continued to work hard, he struggled to cope with the cumulative effect of Ramirez's work. Although Billam-Smith recovered down the stretch, he failed to find the shots that could dampen Ramirez's fighting spirit and the Mexican was able to remain precise enough to keep his man at bay and after the pair in the Ring had left everything behind. In the last round it all came down to the scorecards.

Two scores of 116-112 and a third score of 116-113 ensured Ramirez went home as unified world champion.

The WBO super lightweight title eliminator on the card fell through, but it was enough for Arnold Barboza Jr. (31-0, KO11) to earn a ten-round decision win over former unified world champion Jose Carlos Ramirez (29-2, KO18). . . It was a stop-start situation, but Barboza had the upper hand in the main event, emerging victorious by two scores of 96-94 and a score of 97-93.

The interim WBC lightweight title went to William Zepeda (32-0, KO27), who picked up a razor-thin points victory over Tevin Farmer (33-7-1, KO8) while getting off the ground. Zepeda was overwhelmed in the fourth round when he was taken to the canvas by a massive left hand, and the fight went the full ten rounds with Zepeda scoring two scores of 95-94 while the former world champion came in with the same scoreline Bauer achieved the third result.

Oscar Collazo (11-0, KO8) defended his WBO minimumweight world title for the fourth time and shone with a stoppage win in the seventh round against Thammanoon Niyomtrong (25-1, KO9). Niyomtrong was down in the sixth round and twice more before the stoppage.

Oscar Duarte (28-2-1, KO22) won his super lightweight ten-round contest on points against Botirzhon Akhmedov (10-4, KO9). Duarte triumphed with scores of 98-92, 97-93 and 96-94.

Welterweight contender Ziyad Almaayouf (6-0-1, KO1) suffered a setback as he was held to a six-round draw by Juan Carlos Ramirez Garcia (5-6-1, KO0). A judge ruled Almaayouf won 58-56, but two scores of 57-57 ensured the fight was a stalemate.