And then there was one.<\/p>\n
In a tournament that started with 128 fighters across featherweight, super lightweight, middleweight, and heavyweight, Dante Stone is the last fighter from the U.S. standing in the WBC Grand Prix heading into the semifinal round.<\/p>\n
The American heavyweight will look to punch his ticket to the finals when he faces undefeated Argentinian Kevin Ramirez in a six-round bout in the semis on October 19 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI support my country in every way that I can,\u201d Stone told The Ring. \u201cI hope that I represent it well, but I feel an immense amount of pride knowing that I made it this far, and I’m gonna keep going as far as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen this opportunity first came to be, I didn’t even know what it was. Once I heard about it, I was more than ready to jump at it. I was like a dog chasing the car with no restrictions.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the WBC Grand Prix began, there were 14 fighters from the U.S.<\/p>\n
Stone (21-1, 13 KOs) began the tournament with a second-round knockout of Indalesio Teran in the Round of 32 before nabbing unanimous decision victories over Emiliano Ezequiel Mendoza in the Round of 16 and Youness Baalla in the quarterfinals. Stone, of Omaha, Nebraska, held a significant experience advantage in each of his three fights in the tournament, and believes that has paid dividends in helping him get his hand raised on each occasion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel the ring experience has helped me, especially in the beginning, with being nervous and getting into even better shape as the fights have been going on and capitalizing on it,\u201d Stone said. \u201cI don’t downplay that experience. I also don’t downplay my opponent’s experience.<\/p>\n
“Although a lot of my opponents don’t have as many professional fights, some of my opponents are Olympic-level athletes who have the amateur pedigree of having hundreds and hundreds of fights, some in even multiple sports.<\/p>\n
“That’s where I can’t underestimate these guys for even a second. The moment I think that my opponent, \u2018Oh, well, he only has five fights. He must not be as good as me, because I have 20 fights,\u2019 it’s over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stone lost the first fight of his professional career by unanimous decision to No. 6-ranked UFC heavyweight Waldo Cortes Acosta in 2018. He has since won 21 in a row, which included avenging the defeat to Acosta by a split decision not even six months after they first squared off.<\/p>\n
Stone, 31, has noted that there\u2019s a different feeling to the fights in the WBC Grand Prix, though his approach has remained the same, and he won\u2019t deviate from it when he stands across from Ramirez.<\/p>\n
Ramirez (10-0-2, 4 KOs), of Wilde, Buenos Aires, won by first-round knockout against Brian Zwart in the Round of 32 before winning a unanimous decision over Reagan Apanu in the Round of 16. In the quarterfinals, Ramirez, 25, fought to a split draw against Piotr Lacz on the official and WBC enhanced scorecards, before the WBC executive panel gave the Argentinian the nod 4-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cI treat everyone who’s in front of me like they are the champion of the world and that I need to take them down,\u201d Stone said. \u201cAs far as I’m concerned, Kevin Ramirez is on the same level as Oleksandr Usyk until the fight is over.\u201d<\/p>\n
While there\u2019s no telling what the future holds for Stone or any of the fighters who have made it this far in the tournament, the WBC Grand Prix has shown him that the squared circle is where he\u2019s meant to be, and has reaffirmed his belief in himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a while, I was wondering if I was cut out for the sport,\u201d Stone said. \u201cIf I had the drive, besides the personal motivations with my brother being diagnosed with autism and trying to support my family and everything like that. This tournament has shown me that I have the drive to push it and to make it and to go all the way, and that’s my plan. That is what I’m going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are the rest of the semifinal bouts for the WBC Grand Prix on Oct. 19. Each fight is a six-round bout.<\/p>\n
Heavyweight<\/p>\n
Dante Stone (21-1, 13 KOs) vs Kevin Ramirez (10-0-2, 4 KOs)Ahmed Krnjic (6-0, 4 KOs) vs Keaton Gomes (13-3, 11 KOs)<\/p>\n
Middleweight<\/p>\n
Carlos Sinisterra (13-1, 10 KOs) vs Derek Pomerleau (14-0, 11 KOs)Dylan Biggs (16-1, 9 KOs) vs Lancelot Proton de la Chapelle (17-1-2, 5 KOs)<\/p>\n
Super lightweight<\/p>\n
Mujibillo Tursunov (8-0, 2 KOs) vs Danylo Lozan (15-0, 9 KOs)Carlos Utria (12-0, 10 KOs) vs Ntethelelo Nkosi (10-2, 5 KOs)<\/p>\n
Featherweight<\/p>\n
Brandon Mejia Mosqueda (11-0, 9 KOs) vs Bekizizwe Maitse (8-1-1, 3 KOs)Muhamet Qamili (16-0-1, 7 KOs) vs Yoni Valverde Jr. (16-0, 3 KOs)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And then there was one. In a tournament that started with 128 fighters across featherweight, super lightweight, middleweight,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":{"0":"post-206621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-community","10":"tag-boxing-fights","11":"tag-boxing-history","12":"tag-boxing-interviews","13":"tag-boxing-magazine","14":"tag-boxing-news","15":"tag-boxing-photos","16":"tag-boxing-rankings","17":"tag-boxing-schedule","18":"tag-boxing-videos","19":"tag-boxing-results","20":"tag-disqualification","21":"tag-draw","22":"tag-fight","23":"tag-fighter","24":"tag-fighter-news","25":"tag-knockout","26":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","27":"tag-ring","28":"tag-ring-magazine","29":"tag-split-decision","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-technical-knockout","32":"tag-the-ring","33":"tag-top-fighters","34":"tag-uk","35":"tag-united-kingdom","36":"tag-unitedkingdom","37":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}