No Mas! Robeisy Ramirez Quits Duran Style During WBO Title Rematch with Rafael Espinoza
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
In a rematch of their 12 round controversial majority decision result in December 2023 in Pembroke Pines, Florida, Rafael Espinoza retained the World Boxing Organization World Featherweight title he won from Robeisy Ramirez by controversial sixth round stoppage when Ramirez waved the bout off in the sixth round, ending the bout, on Saturday, December 7, 2024, at Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Cuban southpaw Ramirez, 14-3 with nine knockouts, Las Vegas, Nevada, by way of Cienfuegos, Cuba, the former WBO Featherweight champion coming off a seventh round stoppage win over Brandon Leon Benitez in June 2024 in Miami Beach, Florida, apparently incurred double vision in the right eye in the fifth round after taking an elbow from Espinoza, 26-0 with 22 knockouts, Guadalajara, Mexico.
The Ramirez corner nonetheless sent Ramirez form his corner after the end of the fifth round, out into the ring in the sixth round anyway to see if me maybe could still fight on. However, a straight right by Espinoza to the right eye of Ramirez showed Ramirez he could not fight on with the right eye blurred vision. Ramirez quit by waiving his hand Roberto Duran style as in the ‘No Mas’ bout Duran fought against Sugar Ray Leonard in their welterweight championship rematch in November 1980 at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, where Duran quit in the eighth round.
It was later revealed Ramirez suffered an orbital fracture of the right eye socket, thus making a wise decision to call it a day and return to the ring under better circumstances in the future.
An injury does not always define a fighter’s career, only the decision to retire from a bout so as to enable the injured fighter the chance to heal and recover and return on another better day. Obviously, when this occurs in a high stakes bout like Leonard-Duran II, the televised result will create a highly publicized controversy.
In March 2007, seven rounds into a close war with Rafael Marquez, the late World Super Bantamweight Israel ‘El Magnifico’ Vazquez (who passed away last week at age 46), quit during what had been an evenly fought bout to that point with a broken nose. Criticized for quitting, Vazquez stopped Marquez in an exciting rematch five months later. Seven months after that, he won a split decision in a rubber match better than the first two bouts of the trilogy. Vazquez lost to Marquez in his last bout, their fourth and final meeting.
English