LAS VEGAS – A former unified champion versus a top-five-ranked contender would usually be placed high up the card at a major boxing show like Saturday night’s.
As residue of the friction that exists between the new Zuffa Boxing promotion and Oscar De La Hoya’s established Golden Boy Promotions, however, a clash between ex-champion/U.S. Olympian Jose Ramirez and WBO No. 5-ranked Alexis Rocha was slotted the second preliminary of the nine-bout card at T-Mobile Arena.
Rocha, 27-2-1, rode a ninth-round knockdown to the unanimous-decision victory by scores of 98-91, 98-91, 97-92, perhaps moving Ramirez, 34, toward retirement as he suffered a third consecutive defeat.
The head-scratching placement of the bout came as Zuffa’s young, talented but obscure heavyweight Da’Mazion Vanhouter and former featherweight champion Mark Magsayo occupied the other two main-card bouts under the night’s two highest-profile fights, a meeting of cruiserweight champions Jai Opetaia and Noel Mikaelian, and the first WBC welterweight title defense by Ryan Garcia versus England’s Conor Benn in the main event.
Before a sparse T-Mobile Arena crowd delighted to see such well-credentialed fighters so early in the night, the Southern California-trained Ramirez and Rocha battled, seeking to lift their stock following their recent well-placed performances.
Central California’s Ramirez, who reigned as unified 140lbs champion before losing a 2021 undisputed bout against Josh Taylor across The Strip, last fought in a May 2025 loss to three-division champion Devin Haney at New York’s Times Square.
Rocha, who fought WBA top-ranked contender Raul Curiel to a draw in 2024, defeated former featherweight champion Joseph Diaz Jnr on the main card of a Golden Boy show in Anaheim, California, in March.
Zuffa served as the lead promoter on Saturday’s card, sending its recent high-profile signees Benn and Opetaia into Mexican Independence weekend action.
Amid years of social-media feuding between Zuffa head/UFC CEO/President Dana White and De La Hoya, Ramirez-Rocha was placed before two other six-round preliminaries and an eight-round affair featuring Zuffa’s unbeaten super-middleweight Abel Gonzalez 8-0.
De La Hoya didn’t attend any fight-week events, but posted on Instagram Friday night that he had a “surprise” awaiting.
“Poltics is politics as we all understand,” one individual connected to the fight told BoxingScene Saturday.
Rocha dictated the pace and action, leading to an action-packed seventh round when the pair engaged in exchanges highlighted by Rocha’s power lefts and Ramirez’s combinations.
Producing more activity than the more selective Ramirez, Rocha was struck in the ninth by a hard left and accidental headbutt that cut him on the right side of the forehead, prompting a ringside doctor’s visit.
Seconds after that, Rocha was credited with a right-handed brief knockdown that Ramirez protested as a slip.
Ramirez hadn’t been dropped since hitting the canvas twice in the loss to Taylor.
Rocha landed another defining left in the 10th that led to the combatants exchanging heavily over the final minute, bringing rich applause from the smattering in their seats who saw it.
Garcia’s lightweight brother, Sean Garcia, opened the card with a majority decision victory over Abraham Morales by scores of 56-56, 58-54, 58-54.
Sean Garcia improved to 8-1-1 with the triumph while Mexico’s Morales dropped to 4-2.
