Juan Manuel Marquez didn’t get the tuneup he wanted for his coming trilogy against pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao yesterday.
The WBC lightweight champion obviously picked the wrong opponent as he knocked out Colombian Likar Ramos in 47 seconds of the first round of their 10-round bout in Cancun, Mexico.
Ramos, the former WBA interim champion, was knocked out cold by a single right straight.
It was clear that Marquez (53-5-1, 39 KOs), assured of his biggest payday yet when he faces Pacquiao in November, wasn’t going to lose to Ramos (24-4, 18 KOs).
But nobody expected the bout to end so quickly.
Ramos is the same fighter who lost his title in a seventh round demolition by Jorge Solis who had also been knocked out by Pacquiao and was clearly not in the league of Marquez.
Boxing writer Scott Christ said fans watched a top five pound-for-pound fighter in Marquez against “a bad Colombian club fighter. He is truly not a good fighter and his charity interim belt at 130 pounds was a farce.”
The consensus was that Ramos decided there was no point in trying to beat the count and continue and therefore decided to take his money and go home.
The fight was telecast by ABC 5.