by Francisco Salazar

 LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The nickname 'El Camaron,' (which means shrimp in Spanish), may not intimidate many fighters.

That is okay for Julian Ramirez. He has numerous facets that give fighters numerous problems during a fight.

Just ask Christopher Martin.

Ramirez mostly displayed his aggression, but was able to outbox Martin for 10 rounds, winning a one-sided decision before a sold-out crowd at the Belasco Theatre.

From the opening bell, Ramirez walked Martin down, forcing him against the ropes. Martin was able to get anything going and had to fight more defensively than he wanted as Ramirez threw numerous punches from different angles.

Anytime Martin attempted to mount a rally, Ramirez would put him on the defensive again.

Both fighters found success midway through the sixth round. The southpaw Ramirez seemed to stun Martin with a barrage of punches, but Martin stopped Ramirez's momentum with a hard right hand to the head.

Ramirez was mostly in control in the later rounds, mixing in an attack of left hands to the head and body. Martin dug deep in the final round, but was again overwhelmed by the aggressiveness and power Ramirez possessed throughout the fight.

All three judges scored the bout in favor of Ramirez, 99-99, 99-91, and 100-90.

Ramirez improves to 16-0, 8 KOs, while Martin drops to 28-7-3, 9 KOs.

Featherweight Abraham Lopez (20-0-1, 15 KOs) withstood an early assault, but eventually broke Carlos Varcarcel down, forcing a corner retirement after the seventh round. Varcarcel (14-7-4, 5 KOs) stunned Lopez with a lead left hook to the head in the opening round. He continued to land repeatedly left hooks early on, but momentum swung in Lopez's favor by the midway point of the fight. Lopez began to punish Varcarcel with vicious body punches, prompting Varcarcel's punch output to drop considerably. Lopez hurt Varcarcel in final minute of the seventh round, which may have prompted Varcarcel's corner to tell referee David Mendoza to stop the fight prior to the eighth round. 

Featherweight Edgar Valerio (5-0, 3 KOs) overwhelmed Justin Lopez from the opening bell, eventually stopping him in the first round. With less than a minute left in the opening round, Valerio dropped Lopez (5-5, 5 KOs) with a barrage of punches. Lopez stood up, but was met with an abundant amount of vicious punches to the head, prompting referee Jerry Cantu to stop the bout at 2:40.

Bantamweight Joshua Franco (4-0, 2 KOs) dominated Juan Benavides over six mostly one-sided rounds to win by unanimous decision. Franco stunned Benavides (5-7-1, 2 KOs) at times during the second half of the fight, but Benavides did enough to hold on until the final bell. All three judges scored the bout 60-54 in favor of Franco.

In the opening bout of the Golden Boy Promotions card, junior featherweight Pablo Rubio (4-0, 3 KOs) overwhelmed Bryan Perez in the second round, forcing him to take a knee. Referee Jerry Cantu counted Perez (2-3-1, 1 KO) out at 1:15.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, RingTV, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing