Gilberto Ramirez Edges Gevorg Khatchikian in TruTV Main Event

Highly-rated super middleweight contender Gilberto Ramirez pitched a near shutout against Gevorg Khatchikian over 10 rounds, winning a surprisingly easy unanimous decision. “Zurdo” used his reach and angles to keep his foe off balance throughout and picked him apart from the start.

Khatchikian never was able to get into a rhythm and while he wasn’t in any real danger of being taken out, he was dominated in every aspect of the fight. Though it wasn’t a back-and-forth all-action skirmish, Ramirez (33-0, 24 KOs) kept it entertaining by using all the tools in his arsenal inside the Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas. The scores were lopsided in Ramirez’ favor: 100-90 (twice) and 99-91. Khatchikian fell to 22-2 with 10 KOs.

Saul “Kid Dynamite” Rodriguez Jr. was sensational in blowing out Ivan Najera in the first. A perfect counter left hook dropped his foe during an exchange and when Najera (16-2, 8 KOs) was allowed to continue, Rodriguez drilled him with a three-punch combo, flooring him again. Referee Kenny Bayless never bothered counting. The end came officially at 2:06 of the first, allowing the young lightweight to improve to 19-0-1 with his 14th knockout.

In other action, welterweight contender Konstantin Ponomarev (29-0, 13 KOs) edged Ramses Agaton (17-3-3, 9 KOs) via majority decision; junior lightweight contender Casey Ramos (21-0, 5 KOs) won a lopsided unanimous eight-round nod over Adones Aguelo (24-13-2, 16 KOs); Oleksander Gvozdyk (8-0, 4 KOs), a 2012 Olympic bronze medalist, scored a third round TKO (:50) over Cleiton Conceicao (20-8-2, 16 KOs); and finally, Toka Kahn Clary (17-0, 11 KOs) dropped and forced a stoppage of fellow junior lightweight Sergio Lopez (18-11-1, 12 KOs) in between rounds two and three.