Albert Ramirez retains title in split decision over Lerrone Richards

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Albert Ramirez retained his interim WBA light heavyweight title with a win over Lerrone Richards, but just barely, and in the minds of many, maybe not even deservingly. Ramirez was frustrated and annoyed all night fighting Richards, who has been largely out of the spotlight since 2021, with just one fight of real note in that time, and that was a loss to Steed Woodall in 2024. But Richards’ muck-it-up-and-take-advantage game plan worked quite well tonight, even in the split decision loss. Ramirez vs Richards score cards Ramirez won two cards, both scored 115-113, giving him the split decision victory and keeping his record unbeaten at 23-0 (19 KO). Richards won the third card, 116-112. Bad Left Hook unofficially scored the fight 116-112, also for Richards, who falls to 19-2 (4 KO). Richards, 33, has long felt that he’s been avoided in the boxing world, and he has reason to think that. From the outside, the reason to think that could be true is that he can be a nightmare to fight, as Ramirez learned this evening. The Venezuelan, now based in Montreal, got the win but didn’t seem pleased with his performance on any level, other than escaping with the W and the belt, which is the least of the three that the WBA currently use to call someone their light heavyweight world champion. Richards’ rise up the super middleweight ranks peaked in late 2021, when he beat Carlos Gongora to win the lightly-regarded IBO “world title.” He passed on an offered fight the next year, left Matchroom, and his career has never really recovered. That was somewhat predictable; he’s not a ticket-seller anywhere, and his fight style could be charitably described as dull for the average fan, while being terrible for anyone to fight. Not only is he effective at what he does, but it’s extremely hard to actually look good against him. Richards looked a little rusty early on, but he was also making Ramirez struggle. Every round was a struggle, in fact, and Ramirez had trouble hiding the frustration. Richards, meanwhile, was just doing what Lerrone Richards always does, or at least tries to do. Ramirez did terribly in the clinch with Richards, who was able to tie Ramirez up inside and do work in there, too, where Ramirez didn’t seem comfortable at all. During other portions, Ramirez seemed to be pressing too hard, and harder than normal, trying to head-hunt on Richards, whose ability to evade only seemed to get better as Ramirez grew more tired. It was not any sort of “dominant” or “comprehensive” performance by Richards. Ramirez had his moments, and he had rounds that he won. Richards is not an overwhelming fighter, and certainly not overpowering. But he is good at what he does, and if he had drawn up a realistic hope for how this fight would go, it probably wouldn’t have looked much different than what we got. I think he deserved the win. He’ll feel he deserved the win. But he didn’t get it, and because he’s still the same old Lerrone Richards, he probably will find it tough to get another fight of significance. Albert Ramirez, meanwhile, will hope to play his trade against someone a little less annoying to fight next time out, his “0” intact and a paper title — a fairly important one, but one that needn’t exist all the same — over his shoulder. How did you score Ramirez vs Richards?