NOTTINGHAM, England — Sandy Ryan edged past Karla Ramos Zamora to claim the vacant WBC junior welterweight title at Nottingham's Motorpoint Arena.The former 147lb titleholder, Ryan, was fancied by many coming into the contest to easily deal with the now 12-11-1 (4 KOs) Zamora to claim world honors in a second division.
However, Ryan struggled with her aggressive Mexican foe, and was dragged into a brawl. In the end, Ryan was lucky to be awarded a majority decision victory by scores of 95-95 and 97-93, twice. The contest was a scrappy one, with the shorter and limited Zamora, 32, pressing the action. Ryan, also 32, was making it look easy in the opener, bouncing on her toes as she flicked her left hand into Zamora’s face. The pair looked levels apart, but it was not long before Zamora started to come back into it. Ryan foolishly stood and traded with Zamora in the third, and was being outworked as three consecutive shots bounced off her chin.
The fourth was better for Ryan, who returned to her boxing, but it wasn’t long before she was dragged into a fight again. The seventh was tough for Ryan, Zamora pondered forwards, shoveling a right hand into Ryan’s gut before looping a left hand upstairs. It seemed as though Ryan could be making the contest a straight forward one, but she continued to trade and be outworked by Zamora.
The 10th approached and it seemed anyone’s fight – and it seemed Zamora was ahead – and both women fought accordingly. Ryan was actually having the better of the exchanges up close now, and tagged Zamora with an over hand right, followed by a left to the liver. The bell sounded and the pair embraced as they waited for the official verdict. Ryan, now 9-3-1 (3 KOs), kept her celebrations to a minimum as she had the famous green-and-gold belt strapped round her waste. Despite now being a two-weight champion, the performance was poor from a woman of her calibre.
Matchroom’s heavyweight prodigy Leo Atang picked up another first-round stoppage win against Dan Garber. Atang, now 5-0 (5 KOs), was calm and collected in his previous contest, a third round finish of Amine Boucetta just three weeks earlier. Atang, 19, was taken out of the opener for the first time in that contest, and was praised for not rushing his work. That went out of the window in his contest against Garber, with Atang unloading with venom from the off.
The start was scrappy, with Atang sailing a right hand over the head of his 40-year-old foe, who backed into the corner. Atang then rocked Garber with a left hand and followed it up with a right that caught Garber's shoulder. Atang then proceeded to unload with wild hooks, but nothing landed cleanly. The referee seemed to panic, and stopped the contest without anything telling landing. Garber, now 11-7 (2 KOs), was disappointed and so was Atang. The one minute and 2 seconds of action did neither of them any favors.
