5/22 ESPN & ESPN+: Josh Taylor vs Jose Ramirez (WBA/WBC/IBF/WBO Super Lightweight Championship)

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Ramirez-Taylor: Same Three Judges From Ramirez-Postol Fight Assigned To Bout
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BY KEITH IDEC
Published Wed May 19, 2021, 05:16 PM EDT


A familiar group of officials will work the Jose Ramirez-Josh Taylor fight Saturday night in Las Vegas.

BoxingScene.com has learned that the Nevada State Athletic Commission has assigned judges Tim Cheatham, Dave Moretti and Steve Weisfeld to score their 140-pound title unification fight. Kenny Bayless will be the referee for the 12-round bout between Ramirez (26-0, 17 KOs), of Avenal, California, and Taylor (17-0, 13 KOs), of Prestonpans, Scotland.

All three of those judges scored Ramirez’s most recent fight – a 12-round, majority-decision victory over Viktor Postol on August 29 at MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas.

Bayless, Cheatham and Moretti reside in Nevada. Weisfeld is from New Jersey.

Moretti and Weisfeld are among boxing’s most experienced judges in high-profile fights. Bayless also is one of the sport’s most experienced referees in top-level events.

Cheatham has become a prominent judge in recent years.

He most recently worked the Canelo Alvarez-Billy Joe Saunders match May 8 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Cheatham had Alvarez ahead 77-75 through eight rounds.

Judges Max De Luca and Glenn Feldman both gave Alvarez one more round than Cheatham. They had him ahead 78-74 when Saunders’ trainer, Mark Tibbs, stopped their scheduled 12-round, 168-pound title unification fight following the eighth round because Saunders suffered multiple fractures to the orbital bone around his right eye.

Taylor has fought just three times in the United States. None of the officials assigned to the Ramirez-Taylor bout have worked any of Taylor’s 17 professional fights.

Moretti scored Ramirez’s closely contested defeat of Ukraine’s Postol (31-3, 12 KOs) a draw, 114-114. Weisfeld scored eight rounds for Ramirez (116-112) and Cheatham scored seven rounds for the unbeaten WBC/WBO champion (115-113).

Russell Mora was the referee for the Ramirez-Postol bout.

Cheatham previously judged five of Ramirez’s non-title fights early in his career. Moretti worked one of Ramirez’s non-championship bouts.

His win against Postol is the only Ramirez match Weisfeld has judged.

Taylor, 30, and Ramirez, 28, will fight for Ramirez’s two titles and Taylor’s IBF and WBA belts in a main event ESPN will televise from The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

ESPN’s three-fight telecast will start at 8:30 p.m. EDT with an eight-round bout in which Dominican junior welterweight prospect Elvis Rodriguez will encounter Chicago’s Kenneth Sims Jr. (15-2-1, 5 KOs). Junior welterweight contender Jose Zepeda (33-2, 26 KOs, 2 NC), of La Puente, California, will face Philadelphia’s Hank Lundy (31-8-1, 14 KOs) in the 10-round co-feature.
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Jose Zepeda: It’s Crazy That The Nevada Commission Wouldn’t Approve Campa Fight
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BY KEITH IDEC
Published Thu May 20, 2021, 09:22 AM EDT


Jose Zepeda was more than surprised when his handlers informed him that the Nevada State Athletic Commission refused to approve Pedro Campa as his upcoming opponent.

Mexico’s Campa is 32-1-1 and has knocked out 21 of his opponents. The 29-year-old Campa hasn’t faced a high level of opposition, but Zepeda is just seven months removed from a brutal battle against Ivan Baranchyk in which Zepeda got up from four knockdowns to knock Baranchyk unconscious in the fifth round of their epic encounter.

Zepeda (33-2, 26 KOs, 2 NC), of La Puente, California, instead will face Philadelphia’s Hank Lundy (31-8-1, 14 KOs) in a 10-round junior welterweight fight ESPN will air as the co-feature before the Jose Ramirez-Josh Taylor 140-pound title unification fight Saturday night at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. Campa had been announced as Zepeda’s opponent before NSAC executive director Bob Bennett emailed executives for Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. to inform them that Campa wasn’t an acceptable opponent.

“It’s crazy because the state commission of Nevada has approved many other fights that are really uneven,” Zepeda told BoxingScene.com. “Everybody was saying, ‘Why would you not accept this fight?’ This guy was I believe [32] and 1, with [21] KOs. So, I have no idea. At the end of the day, they can do what they wanna do. But it’s kinda sad because everyone knows they have approved worse fights, or fights that are uneven.”

Nevertheless, the 31-year-old Zepeda considers Lundy a respectable replacement for Campa, who beat Venezuelan veteran Carlos Cardenas (26-19-1, 16 KOs) by majority decision in his last fight, an eight-rounder February 6 in Hermosillo, Mexico. The 37-year-old Lundy has seven more losses and is eight years older than Campa, but he has faced much better opponents overall.

Unbeaten WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) and former WBC super lightweight champ Viktor Postol (31-3, 12 KOs) are among the opponents who have defeated Lundy.

“I really like this fight because he’s a veteran,” Zepeda said. “He’s been in this game for a long time. He’s not an easy target. He’s a boxer and he’s gonna give me a lot of experience. I even think he’s gonna give me more experience than if I would’ve fought Pedro Campa. So, everything came out perfect because I feel Hank Lundy’s gonna give it his all and it’s a new style for me, I believe. I haven’t fought somebody like Hank Lundy.”
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