Twelve years ago today: Juan Manuel "Dinamita" Márquez Méndez vs. Likar Arturo Ramos Concha Jr.

I've said a lot about this over the years, so this will serve as repository for all my thoughts (for me to quickly link to whenever it comes up).

For anyone not in the know, this was a tune-up bout that JMM took in between out-gritting Michael "The Gladiator" Katsidis in a unified (WBO & WBA Super) and Ring Magazine lightweight title defense, and his long-awaited second rematch with Emanuel Dapidran Pacquiao a year later. The ink was actually dry on the contracts for Márquez vs. Pacquiao III within a fortnight of Manny beating Shane Mosley in May, but at that point JMM had fought Mick Katsidis six months prior.

To his credit, he tried securing a better tune-up before settling on Ramos (with his primary consideration being to log some flight time versus a southpaw). First choice was Chicagoan lefty "Dangerous" David Díaz, who by 2011 wasn't quite living up to his nickname but was at least a former world titlist. Díaz, however, scoffed at the money he was offered, insulted.

Enter the Colombian glass cannon, Likar Ramos. Book on him is pretty short: represented his native Columbia in the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad at featherweight, but yeeted in the opening round. In the pros he started with a 21-2 (15) record at home, including absurdly being crowned interim WBA super featherweight titlist having never fought anybody with a pulse - only for Jorge Solís to absolutely wreck him the moment he first laced up on foreign soil.

Very little prestige to be gained and even the goal of getting in some rounds on shaky ground - but a southpaw at least, and Dinamita wouldn't have to head in against Pac having sat idle wall-to-wall from November to November.

Having set the stage, here then is the fight itself:

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Now, immediately there was a firestorm of controversy online with suggestions that it appeared "obviously fixed" or choreographed like pro wrestling. Stuff and nonsense. I have contended, from the night of until this day, that such accusations do not bear the dignity of indulgence and speak to a complete lack of horse sense on the part of the hurlers.

Ramos' professional record today (yes he's still active for some reason) is 30-15, with all but two losses coming by KO/TKO/RTD. In other words, Ramos has been halted by a baker's dozen opponents: Jorge Solís KO7, JMM TKO1, Claudio Alfredo Olmedo KO1, Jean Carlos Prada KO2, Sergei Shigashev RTD2, Ilhami Aydemir TKO2, José Miguel Borrego TKO3, Stepan Diyan TKO1, Johan González KO2, Bryan Pérez Castillo TKO2, Dervin Colina TKO5, Quincy LaVallais RTD4, and Carlos Galván KO3.

He gets stopped, on average, in 3.18 rounds (so we'll say first minute of the 4th round).

Shigashev through Borrego was a consecutive slump of three stoppage losses over a a year and half span, and Diyan through Galván has been another with 6 defeats over 2 years. All together he is 1-9 in the last 5½ years - stopped in all nine losses, the lone victory a KO1 blitz over John Merino who is 0-10. The non-stoppage losses were to Edixon García, DQ5 (Ramos bit his shoulder...yeah, dafuq? ) and Walter Estrada, UD10 (but Ramos was dropped twice in the 1st round).

As needn't be spelled out, LIKAR RAMOS IS TERRIBLY FRAGILE. To both head and body. Physically and mentally, rice paper. He was a halfway decent amateur, so he was able to enjoy moderate success in regional tourneys across Latin America, but he wasn't skilled enough to avoid getting cracked in the pro game, and simply wasn't ever able to withstand the punches of anybody that could hit even remotely hard. A smidgen of power of his own would help to roll over tomato cans, but that's about the most it was good for; couldn't save him against world ranked opponents.

So to answer the 1st part of what idiots consider a "smoking gun" - yes, that shot from JMM was enough to put him down & out. Considering we're talking about Likar Ramos here, it was in fact plenty. As for the second, that his fall "looked weird" - that makes for a little trickier debunking, since it requires people to confront that maybe their instincts are not as sound as they believe. Many fans arrogantly think anything that looks "off" in their opinion (as in, doesn't jive with past heuristics) must be hinky. That's dumb, though, because honestly most of the rest of you haven't watched enough boxing to be able to say that. Blunt fact, most fans' eyeballs simply haven't scanned as much boxing as mine. Watch over a long enough timeline, you see tons of bizarre physiological reactions, to head blows especially - some comical, some gut-wrenching, but varying widely by individual.

My posts in the "real or fake" poll I ran on here a couple of years ago hoping to put the issue to bed:

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And from a more recent thread:

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Likar for his part seems like a class act, by the way... the chinny bastard.

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JMM had serious kayo power (and, just as essential, timing/location with his punches) long before he linked up with the admittedly shady Memo Heredia. The nickname Dinamita wasn't affixed early in his career for no reason.

...and, FWIW, he did pass several VADA/USADA tests even during his bulk to welterweight (both times, against Mayweather and then his swansong run from Pac III until Alvarado).

If he did cycle roids, which the jury is officially out on with him never getting popped, regardless of what circumstantial evidence (ie acne) or "gut feeling" people may want to point to, he certainly didn't need them - or a "fix" - to beat Likar freaking Ramos.

 

HAPPY JMM VS. LIKAR RAMOS WAS A CLEAN AF KAYO DAY, EVERYONE!

 

Btw, since this thread was made year ago Ramos has gone on to be stopped twice more. That makes 15 of his 17 professional losses (nearly a third of his 47 contests) getting KTFO.

I don't know wtf he's doing so high up in weight but this last pair came at light heavy and freaking CRUISER.

How do you have a chin that bad and in your late thirties decide, I don't care for what amount of money, that you're going to let 200lb men hit you in the face?

 

Possible that Ramos is the p4p chinniest ever Olympian-turned-pro?

Think he clears the likes of, say, Audley Harrison easily.