Fighter of the Week (2/12-2/18): Ramon Cardenas
28-year-old Ramon "Dinamita" Cardenas of San Antonio, Texas, said back in September that his second-round KO of Rafael Pedroza, "a star was born." That may have very well been the case. If that was his star-making performance, his sixth-round stoppage of Israel Picazo should be his "a world title challenger was born" performance. On a loaded weekend of prize fighting, the Texan did it again and captured the "Fighter of the Week" award for the second in two fights, moved his record to 24-1 (13) , put the entire 122-pound division on notice and put himself in the thick of the world title talks.
The 122-pound San Antonio native stopped surging Mexican prospect Israel Rodriguez Picazo. Dinamita pressed forward but also selected beautiful corner shots with the right hand and left hook that continually landed on the button. Cardenas rocked Picazo to the body late in the second, and Picazo began to let off the gas just a little bit. Noticing Picazo didn't like the body shots. The San Antonian began focusing on the body more and taking more and more steam out of his opponent. Cardenas caught Picazo low halfway through that frame. The fifth round saw some rough play as a low blow put Picazo to the floor, and the Mexican took a prolonged recovery period to gather himself. Just moments later, the two combatants collided heads, and both men got cuts. After the cuts, Picazo came out slinging once again to end the fifth. In the sixth, a massive right-hand scored from Cardenas literally knocked Picazo’s jaw out of whack. Unable to close his jaw following the end of the end, the doctor was called in to examine the damaged jaw, and the response when asked if the fight should be stopped was a resounding, “Oh dear, yes” The fight was immediately stopped, and Cardenas, was awarded the sixth-round TKO.
Cardenas shattered the jaw of his opponent and caught the attention of the boxing world. He is ready to move up to the highest level and should be in the mic for a title shot. He was close to getting a shot at the Monster Naoya Inoue back at 118 pounds when they both competed in that division. He may not get that shot at 122 pounds if Inoue gets past Luis Nery. Cardenas was ranked sixth by the WBA. Picazo was ranked third. So it is logical that he will leapfrog Picazo, and could even find himself in the top in a title eliminator fight with the #1 ranked Murodjon Akhmadaliev, with the winner getting a shot at the monster.
