Miami, OK (February 14, 2017) – On Friday, February 10, boxing fans were treated to a fight of the year candidate between junior welterweights Ivan “The Beast” Baranchyk of Brooklyn, NY and Arizona’s Abel Ramos. The bout took place at the Buffalo Run Casino in the main event of ShoBox: The New Generation. It was a significant fight for both combatants, with Baranchyk looking to move further up the ladder while Ramos hoped to become a player at 140 pounds by taking out his highly regarded foe.
When the matchup was announced, Baranchyk and Ramos were expected to put on an entertaining fight. What ultimately transpired however far exceeded expectations.
For ten rounds, Baranchyk and Ramos had the capacity crowd on their feet cheering on the incredible action. Both men hit the canvas and were badly hurt at different points of the fight, trading punches at a frenetic pace. They bled, brawled and left everything in the ring in a fight that was among the greatest in ShoBox’s 17 year history.
Scores were 99-91, 97-92 and 97-93 for Baranchyk, who is 14-0 with 10 knockouts. Ramos, whose stock went up tremendously in defeat, is 17-2-2 (12 KO’s).
The CompuBox stats were similar to the first showdown between Arturo Gatti and Mickey Ward. Baranchyk and Ramos combined to land 664 total punches and 482 power shots. Gatti-Ward I saw a total of 618 connects with 521 being power punches.
“I believe this has to be the best fight in ShoBox history,” exclaimed Baranchyk’s promoter Tony Holden, who promotes him along with DiBella Entertainment and Fight Promotions Inc. “Ivan is a natural crowd pleaser. He has the biggest heart in boxing and incredible conditioning. Like we saw many times from the late, great Arturo Gatti, Ivan was hurt, bloodied and took a lot of punches but his will powered him to victory. I believe he could become the next Arturo Gatti but there’s still work to do.”
Lou DiBella, who promoted the aforementioned Ward, believes Baranchyk is boxing’s newest action star.
“We got stats from CompuBox and they were almost identical to Gatti-Ward 1 and Corrales-Castillo 1, two of the greatest fights in boxing history. Baranchyk and Ramos put on a fight for the ages and I think the comparison to Gatti-Ward is a good one. Ivan’s offensive mindedness and willingness to take and give punishment is reminiscent of Arturo Gatti. He’s already shown he can get a crowd behind him and that was proven by how quickly the fans in Miami, OK adopted him as if he were one of their own. I really think he can become the Belarusian Gatti.”