Sometimes, boxing fans need a reminder that fights aren’t won and lost on pre-fight betting lines and sometimes it comes down to which fighter is able to dig deepest when things aren’t going their way. Despite being a -900 favorite, Mario Barrios had to dig deep just to manage a split draw against Abel Ramos and retain his WBC welterweight championship on the Netflix stream for Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul.
Barrios landed a heavy right hand in the first round that buckled Ramos’ legs, nearly resulting in a knockdown. There was no “almost” in the second round, when another Barrios right hand dropped Ramos to the canvas.
As the rounds ticked by, it appeared Barrios was well in control and set to retain his world title. Then, Ramos’ own right hand caught up to the champion. In Round 6, Ramos connected clean with a right and dropped Barrios. While Barrios was able to beat the count, Ramos’ right hand continued to sneak through and around Barrios’ guard and turned the contest into a a real fight and test of wills.
CBS Sports will also have live coverage of the fight with round-by-round scoring and blow-by-blow updates to keep you up to date throughout the night.
By the late stages of the fight, both men were bleeding while connecting — and being connected on — with regularity. Defense had seemingly gone out the window, but on a stage as massive as the Tyson vs. Paul undercard, being exciting may pay longer term dividends than simply getting your hand raised.
Barrios was eventually able to weather the worst of the storm, though he did continue to eat punches, and slowly gained back some degree of control, but nothing came easy for either man.
After the conclusion of 12 brutal rounds of action, the official scorecards read 114-112 Ramos, 116-110 for Barrios and 113-113 even for a split draw.
The only sensible move for both fighters will be a rematch, but Ramos did not enter the ring as the actual WBC No. 1 contender, so the opportunity may not come again for the challenger.
“I know it was a close fight,” Barrios said. “I knew Abel was going to come for everything. … I was finding success in the early rounds but he was able to make and adjustment and it was a war.”
Barrios said the knockdown in the sixth round didn’t affect him late but admitted he was caught by something he didn’t see and it did affect him in the moment.
“I was saying in all the interviews, I prepared myself for a hard 12 rounds,” Barrios said. “That’s what I got.”
Ramos was respectful after the draw and saw no reason to complain about the result.
“It was a great fight for the fans,” Ramos said. “When you get two Mexican fighters like us, you’re going to get great action, guaranteed.”
In the main event, the 27-year-old Jake Paul boxed circles around the 58-year-old Mike Tyson and seemed to carry him to the finish line instead of go for the finish. While there was tons of intrigue into what Tyson would look like at this advanced age against a relative novice in comparison, the fight was never really close to delivering on fan expectations. That was thanks in part to the larger gloves and shorter rounds. In the end, Paul earned a unanimous decision by a wide margin on all three scorecards.
