This is something that has always puzzled me. Ramos looked like a helluva fighter for about a 2-year stretch or so. He was very big-looking and strong for the weight (probably the "biggest" FW I've ever seen), he was a good technician, and he had a tremendous right hand. He knocked over a bunch of contenders, then (tragically, of course) toppled a very good and probably underrated champion in Davey Moore. After that he defended his title a couple of times against legit contenders. Then, he traveled to Africa for a fight with local contender Floyd Robertson, pretty much unknown outside his homeland, and that turned out to be a big turning point in his career. Ramos took a lot of punishment in the late rounds and was floored, but managed to retain his title on a controversial split decision. (The two officials who voted for Ramos were WBA executives. Hmmmmm... :think). That fight caused an international incident, as the African commission "changed" the result to a win for Robertson and tried (unsuccessfully) to convince the rest of the world to go along with it. I've never seen footage of that fight so I don't really know what happened, but it seems Ramos was never the same afterward. In his next defense, he was busted up and stopped by Vicente Saldivar, which began Saldivar's championship run. Although Ramos floated around as a contender for some time afterward, and even got two shots at Carlos Ortiz's LW title, he never regained anything like the form or standing he had once had. Meanwhile, Robertson got another shot against Saldivar, and was crushed in just two rounds - which would seem to indicate he really wasn't all that special of a fighter. Does anyone know what caused such a sharp reversal in Ramos' career? What happened in the Robertson fight that caused him so much trouble?
Incidentally, for anyone who's never seen it, and can bear to watch it, here's Ramos' tragic battle with Moore: [yt]03uI0eb3Uqs[/yt] [yt]pd055am8OM0[/yt] [yt]Ro3bbbEVJDA[/yt] [yt]1VJMFcpXfyE&feature=related[/yt] [yt]-u8YKnDLcdg[/yt] Two real nice-looking fighters here. Such great technicians, they really knew how to fight. Watching Moore give that interview at the end is almost bone-chilling though.
I don't think he reacted to the tragedy of his fight with Moore the same way that Griffith did with Paret. For example, I don't think there was a transformation in his style like Griff's, where he became less dependent on a ko and went for points victorys. I just think he went through a natural decline, perhaps a bit steeper than some fighters, but he was essentially a rather aggresive fighter with a punch who got frustrated by taking on and losing to superior fighters like Carlos Ortiz, and didn't have the versatility to adjust like Griffith, using him again for an example, did.
I`ve got about 45 minutes of that fight, the footage is silent and missing a few rounds but the picture is clear and going on memory as I haven`t watched it in a few years Ramos did get roughed up in the last third of the fight and knocked down in the 13th round by a right hand I believe it was. As for why Ramos went downhill so suddenly I think it was due to weight making troubles from what I recall, as you pointed out he was huge for a FW and by the time of the Robertson fight making the weight was starting to catch up to him, also the Davey Moore tragedy took some of the fire out of him as well and from what I was told by someone who was close to Sugar he was never quite the same after that.
Yes to both. As to Ramos, I've read stories of how he would close down bars the night before fights. If his habits were truly like that it would explain a lot.
