Casey Ramos

The main event featured Texas featherweight champion, Casey "The Wizard" Ramos (10-0, 4 KO's) in a non-title 8-rounder against Joe Morales (19-13, 4 KO's).  Ramos began the contest by applying smart, constant pressure and repeatedly backed Morales into the ropes.  A series of rights to the eye brought forth visible signs of discomfort to Morales in the 2nd round and Ramos pounded his foe into a corner to close out the 3rd.  But just when it looked like "The Wizard" had cast a spell upon his opponent, Morales dislodged Ramos' mouthpiece with a hard shot.  Customarily, the referee waits until there's a lull in the action, to re-insert the mouthpiece, but in this case he halted the little bit of momentum that Morales had going, to the disgust of his trainer, Tony Ayala, Sr.

Round 5 was the first clear-cut round to be scored for Morales and Ramos lost his mouthpiece twice more in the 6th.  This time, points were deducted, but that seemed to reinvigorate Ramos who got the better of a powerful exchange to close out the stanza.  By the 7th, Ramos had a mouse under his left eye, nicks around the same eye and blood coming from his mouth, yet he dominated what was now phone booth warfare.  The fighters stood toe-to-toe in the final round, but as was the case for most of the bout, Ramos' shots were more frequent and telling.  Paulie Ayala's prized possession won unanimously by scores of 78-73 (twice) and 77-74.

The most competitive and action packed fight that I’ve seen in 2009 took place between Arthur Trevino (5-3-2, 2 KO's) and Albert Romero (0-1-1).  Romero bum rushed and seemed to hurt Trevino at the outset, but the Ft. Worth native admirably weathered the storm and abruptly shifted the momentum with a left to the body.  Moments later, a clash of heads caused a cut over Romero's left eye and both men swung for the fences to close out the 1st.  Trevino dominated round two, but soon received a deep, ugly gash along his right eye, courtesy of another head butt in the 3rd.  None of the head banging was intentional on either fighter’s behalf and in fact it's a fairly common occurrence when a southpaw meets an orthodox fighter, as was the case with Romero and Trevino.

Arturo Trevino with trainer Vince Reyes

Popular Ft. Worth female fighter, Lisa Lamb (6-5, 2 KO's) lost a spirited affair to the much bigger Christina Ruiz (2-1, 1 KO).  I’ve not seen a woman with true 1-shot power like Ruiz has since Ann Wolfe; she hurt Lamb in the 1st and dropped her in the 2nd.  But like the proud Mexican warrior that she is, Lamb climbed off the canvas and immediately brought the fight to Ruiz.  Despite being a female, Lisa Lamb definitely has nuts and more of her male counterparts could take lessons on courage from her. She dug deep, Arturo Gatti style, and redeemed herself by the end of round two.  Eventually, Lamb effectively worked her way inside the power of Ruiz, but not enough to offset the knockdown and win the fight.  Had she used her footwork more and attacked from angles, the fight may have played out differently.  Scores were unanimous, 39-36 and 40-35 (twice).

In other bouts, Julio Cesar Rangel (5-4, 4 KO's) won a split decision over Milton Ramos (2-1, 2), 39-37 (twice) and 37-39.  Miguel Buendia (2-1, 1 KO) got a unanimous nod over the crafty Miguel Delgado (3-14-1, 3 KO's), 40-36 on all cards and Jorge Suarez (2-0, 2 KO's) scored a 2nd round KO over the ballsy but outgunned Vincent Releford (0-1).