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Sugar Ramos: Lethal Cuban


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Sugar Ramos is known to most as the man who killed Davey Moore in the ring, unfortunately. That tragic fight from 1963 was one of the first high-profile fights to end in death of one of the fighters, like the one between Emile Griffith and Benny Paret a year before. That fight forever put a stamp on Ramos as a dark and dangerous figure. Otherwise, the Cuban-born and Mexican-based Ramos was known as a very strong guy for his stature (5'4) who had a big right hand punch and was a cult figure in his adopted homeland Mexico. However, his success on world stage was relatively short-lived and moving up from featherweight to lightweight didn't help things too much. His career would unravel after losing twice to Carlos Ortiz, first time in controversial fashion.

 

Ultiminio "Sugar" Ramos was born 2 December 1941 in Matanzas, Cuba. His first professional fight was in October 1957 in Cuba, while he was still 15. He moved from Cuba first to Panama in 1960 and then to Mexico in 1961 after the banning of professional boxing by Fidel Castro. He won most of his first 20 fights by knockout, showing his impressive power. However, he also had skill and savvy, a complete package. After winning 31 fights and drawing 3, he experienced his first loss against Rafael Camacho by a disqualification in four. He won seven more fights before getting a title shot against reigning undisputed featherweight champion Davey Moore who was a beloved figure in the States. The fight took place on 21 March 1963, on Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Moore had reigned for four years, making five defenses. He was a quite durable fighter who had quite a few late round stoppage wins, but despite that, he wouldn't make it out of this fight alive. He also had problems getting down to 126 pounds before the fight. Ramos was only 21 and unknown to most in the US. After a slow start, the fight turned into a slugfest as Ramos took control of the fight. In the 10th round, his left hooks sent Moore to the ropes. A series of Ramos lefts and rights drove Moore toward the center-field side of the ring, where a left hook knocked him onto the seat of his shorts, his head twanging against the lowest of the three ropes. Moore got up as referee George Latka counted "three," and that rope wouldn't be given another thought for days. However, after that round Moore's trainer signalled that his man couldn't go on. Moore appeared ok, until 40 minutes later, when he collapsed in his dressing room. He went into a coma and never awoke, dying four days later. The cause of death was revealed to have been whiplash to his brain stem due to the blow to his neck from the rope.

 

The most controversial champion made his first defense four months later against Rafiu King of Nigeria. The fight took place in Arena Mexico in Mexico City and Ramos retained his titles with a UD 15. He then stopped the Japanese challenger Mitsunori Seki by TKO 6 in Tokyo, before heading to Accra, Ghana to take on the local hope Floyd Robertson. It turned out to be a very tough fight; after being in control for most of the fight, Ramos took a lot punishment in the late rounds and was floored in the 13th but still managed to get a split decision. The Ghanaian commission refused to acknowledge the result and first declared the fight a no-contest and then declared Robertson as the winner! But despite all that, the result remained unchanged in the rest of the world and Ramos remained champion. And then came the turning point in his career: in September 1964 he faced the 21-yearold Mexican hope Vicente Saldivar. Ramos lost the crown to the younger and hungrier future hall of famer when he retired after 12 rounds of punishment. Some have speculated that the beating he took in the Robertson fight ended his prime and that it is the reason why he was dominated by Saldivar.

 

He would move up to lightweight division soon thereafter. In 1965 he showed signs of rejuvenation after he stopped the Mexican champion Raul Soriano with a TKO 6, thus showing his power held up at the new weightclass. After beating Soriano even easier in the rematch, by TKO 2, he landed another title shot, this time against the Puerto Rican lightweight king Carlos Ortiz. The fight was held in October 1966; Ramos surprised everyone by decking the naturally bigger Ortiz in the second round. Billy Conn was the referee and it seemed that he gave Ortiz a long count and Ortiz recovered, coming back strong and cutting Ramos before the fight was controversially stopped in the 5th round. WBC then declared the title vacant, due to the long count and improper stoppage. However, in the rematch eight months later, Ortiz stopped Ramos in 4 rounds after flooring him once in the last round. He took a year off before returning with impressive victories against Pinoy champion Rudy Gonzalez by TKO2 and the future WBC champion Chango Carmona by TKO 7. Carmona was known as a very strong and aggressive fighter. In 1970 he won a majority decision against another former featherweight world champion, Raul Rojas. He then squared off against Mando Ramos, who was a former undisputed lightweight champion. Mando took control early on but Sugar managed to inflict significant cuts and then came back strong as the blood blinded Mando and won the 7th, 8th and 9th rounds before a brave Mando took charge and won the last round, winning by a split decision.

 

He then lost to Panamanian Antonio Amaya who cut him severely and gave him a pounding, winning by UD 10. The 15, 000 fans present at the Monterrey bullring shouted for Ramos to retire. But he didn't. In his next fight he drew against Jimmy Robertson before winning his last fight by stopping Lyle Randolph by TKO 7. In his last fight in April 1972, he was stopped in the 10th round by a 6-3 record fighter called Cesar Sinda and decided it was time to retire. He was 30 and had fought for 15 years, leaving a record of 55 wins with 40 knockouts, 7 losses and 4 draws.

 

As epilogue, I can say that Ultiminio Sugar Ramos is still alive today, aged 72. He was elected into the world boxing hall of fame in 1992 and the international boxing hall of fame in 2001.

 

Source: Boxrec

Edited by BoztheMadman
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