Valdez Defeats Servania/Ramirez Wins A Barn Burner Against Hart
By Ron Valderrama: Genesis Servania (29-1, 12 KOs), faced Oscar Valdez (23-0, 19 KOs) for the WBO featherweight title. Valdez, fighting before a capacity crowd at the Tucson Convention Center on Friday, set the tone from the first bell. The event was presented by Top Rank Boxing in association with Peltz Boxing and televised on ESPN.
Valdez showed tremendous speed and skill attacking the body of Servania with some powerful blows in the early rounds. In round four, Servania fought Valdez moving forward, finding success landing a few punches on the inside. Moments later, Servania landed a right, clipping Valdez and dropping him.
Round five would prove to be an exciting round, Servania landing some good shots. But the grit of Valdez would shine, a barrage of punches would drop Servania for a count. Servania survived but was clearly dazed. In round six, the seesaw battle would continue, each fighter giving it all. In the final moments of the round, Sevania unleased a barrage of punches on Valdez to end the round. In round nine, Valdez set the tone and the tempo, landing clean and crisp punches Servania, who up till now had a nice counter punch going.
Servania seemed to be losing steam, missing many of his punches. In the final round, the dogfight continued, both fighters refusing to give up. In the final moments, each throwing a barrage of punches on each other, pure magic indeed.
The judges scored the bout 116-110, 119-111 and 117-109 in favor of Oscar Valdez. Bob Arum said after the fight that he was pleased with the turnout, he also said about 774 walkup fans bought tickets. One thing is for sure, boxing fans in Tucson witnessed some great boxing on Friday night.
In the co-main event, Jesse Hart (22-1, 18KOs), battled a tough Gilberto Ramirez (36-0, 24KOs) for the WBO super middleweight title. Ramirez went to work early, scoring a knockdown in round three. Hart was stunned, but beat the count and bounced back with tremendous, well, heart. With an amazing chin, Hart fired back, refusing to cave although taking an onslaught of piercing blows. As the fight entered the later rounds, Ramirez continued to move forward on Hart, trying to cut off the ring. In round eight, Hart had success working Ramirez on the inside, landing some clean and crisp uppercuts. Hart was more aggressive at the start of round nine, even pinning Ramirez on the ropes a few times. But then, a crushing body shot thrown by Ramirez stunned Hart. But Hart refused to give up, punching his way out. The action was toe-to-toe, Hart having a good round eleven, rocking Ramirez with some heavy-handed punches. In the final round, it was nothing but pure action, Hart landing, then Ramirez landing. In the final moments, Ramirez poured on the steam and finished strong, truly a great fight to watch. In the end, the judges scored the bout 115-112 X 2 and 114-113 in favor of Gilberto Ramirez. Simply said, this fight was a barn burner.
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