{"id":56270,"date":"2025-08-10T03:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T03:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/56270\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T03:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T03:38:10","slug":"cuello-ends-rios-in-two-ramirez-stops-pampellone-in-seven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/56270\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuello ends Rios in two, Ramirez stops Pampellone in seven"},"content":{"rendered":"

BENGHAZI, Libya \u2014 Mirco Cuello<\/a> claimed the vacant WBA Interim featherweight title with a second-round stoppage over Sergio Rios<\/a> in Friday night’s main event at Martyrs of Benina Stadium, Benghazi.
Cuello, The Ring<\/a>‘s No. 8-rated featherweight, entered the contest with much to prove after producing a comeback win over Christian Barreda in the final stanza of their 10-round contest on the David Benavidez-David Morrell undercard in Las Vegas on February 1. <\/p>\n

It appears the wake-up call to the former amateur standout was noted. <\/p>\n

Cuello (16-0, 13 KOs) quickly and efficiently went about his business, serving notice to Rios (19-1, 7 KOs) with a big right hand that got his Mexican opponent’s attention with around a minute left in the opening round. In the later stages of the same frame, another big right landed flush to dump Rios on the canvas.<\/p>\n

The Argentine contender was in no mood to let Rios hang around and scored a second knockdown again with a right hand. While Rios made it to his feet, the end was close. Cuello charged across the ring and spotted an opening to the body, connecting on a perfect left hook which saw his agemate double up as referee Robert Ramirez Jr. counted him out. <\/p>\n

The win brought Cuello, 24, the WBA interim title.<\/p>\n

He hopes to level up and face<\/a> full champion Nick Ball soon, who makes his third defence against Australia’s unbeaten Sam Goodman (20-0, 8 KOs) on DAZN PPV come August 16<\/a> and on this evidence looks like another player in the talent rich 126-pound division.<\/p>\n

Ramirez raises his stock again with Pampellone finish
During the evening’s chief support, world-rated light heavyweight contender Albert Ramirez<\/a> took out British-born New Zealand-based contender Jerome Pampellone<\/a> in seven rounds.<\/p>\n

Ramirez, The Ring’s No. 6-rated contender at 175-pounds, had to deal with Pampellone’s cagey tactics in the early going during an encounter fought slowly as both sought to counter one another. <\/p>\n

With limited action, Ramirez (22-0, 19 KOs) went on the back foot trying to force Pampellone (19-3, 12 KOs) into initiating some attacks. The fight was drifting until Ramirez suddenly stepped on the gas late in the sixth round, pressing forward with sustained attack.<\/p>\n

Those advances proved fruitful and yielded a knockdown in the closing seconds of this round, as the 29-year-old could consider himself fortunate to survive.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old Venezuelan jumped on Pampellone early in the seventh, scoring a second knockdown soon enough. As he smelled blood, the older man threw a volley of punches that had his rival on decidedly unsteady legs and soon enough, on the canvas again. <\/p>\n

This time the action was mercifully waved off by referee Janny Guzman at 1:19 of the round as Ramirez collected the WBA interim title while his attempts at securing bigger fights continues<\/a>. For now, it appears the division’s other top players have other assignments booked but one thing is certain: Ramirez would be a tough out for any of them.
Undercard results<\/p>\n

Rising junior lightweight contender Josue Aguero (14-0, 7 KOs) easily beat Diego Aleman (20-4-1, 14 KOs) to claim a 10-round unanimous decision.<\/p>\n

The Argentine boxer was too strong and dominated proceedings behind a powerful jab, which was often followed by a strong right hand. Aleman didn’t look to engage and took the safety-first approach which made their fight look like sparring at times. <\/p>\n

While the Mexican made it to the final bell, his eight-fight winning streak was snapped rather abruptly as all three judges scored it 100-90 in the younger man’s favour. <\/p>\n

In what proved the fight of the night, perennial contender Francisco Fonseca upset unbeaten Olympic silver medallist Sofiane Oumiha with a narrow points win in their 10-round lightweight contest. <\/p>\n

Large parts of this bout were fought at close quarters, which suited the more experienced Fonseca (37-4-2, 29 KOs). The 31-year-old has previously fallen short in world title efforts against Gervonta Davis and Tevin Farmer at junior-lightweight, though mixing it with champions at the elite level have served him well since.<\/p>\n

Still just 31, the Nicaraguan-based Costa Rican national hurt and dropped Oumiha (6-1, 3 KOs) late in round three. Fonseca meant business in the following round, though his French opponent naturally tried using his footwork to keep away from an underdog on a mission.<\/p>\n

While this fight seemed close throughout, it also felt as though Oumiha had been baited into fighting Fonseca’s fight. At the conclusion, the judges’ scorecards reflected that.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Maciel scored it 97-92 in Fonseca’s favour, while Roberto Ramirez Jr and Ignacio Robles both had it 95-94 – meaning the knockdown cost Oumiha a draw and his unblemished record in the paid ranks.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Beforehand in the evening’s opening contest, former cruiserweight world title challenger Mike Perez was forced to settle for a no-contest after four completed rounds against Christian Luis.<\/p>\n

Perez was workmanlike behind the jab early on while his Argentine opponent looked to spoil and make a fight out of things. At the very end of round four, Perez (31-3-1, 22 KOs) threw a punch that landed on Luis, deemed after the bell but unintentional. <\/p>\n

Luis (12-4, 8 KOs) slumped to the floor and stayed there, in a performance worthy of an Oscar reminding this writer of Luis Santana’s efforts during two infamous fights in the 1990s with Terry Norris. Ultimately, the officials declared it a no-contest as the 33-year-old was in no position to continue.<\/p>\n

Questions and\/or comments can be sent to Anson at elraincoat@live.co.uk and you can follow him on Twitter@AnsonWainwr1ght<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BENGHAZI, Libya \u2014 Mirco Cuello claimed the vacant WBA Interim featherweight title with a second-round stoppage over Sergio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[10649,2560,10650,30681,30682,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-56270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-albert-ramirez","9":"tag-boxing","10":"tag-jerome-pampellone","11":"tag-mirco-cuello","12":"tag-sergio-rios-jimenez","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56270","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=56270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}