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Saturday, December 5, 2020

Yuri Foreman Wins Comeback Fight

Rabbi Yuri Foreman defeated Jeremy Ramos at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage in Louisville tonight. The former world champion last fought nearly four years ago and earned his first win in four and a half years.

Foreman, who is 40 years old, showed impressive speed and quickness. He landed overhand rights from the outside and leaping left hooks throughout the fight. Ramos, who is seven years younger than Yuri, wanted to counter, but he couldn't catch Foreman. He soon changed tactics and tried to rush in with combinations every once in a while. Ramos, a Colorado resident, was lucky to merely miss; most of Jeremy's charges resulted in Foreman counters which were the Brooklyn resident's hardest punches of the contest.

The first round was as slow as you would expect when a mover and a counterpuncher meet. It served as the textbook definition of a feel-out round. Yuri found his timing and distance in the second. He feinted effectively and used his foot and hand speed to land a couple of eye-catching left hooks and overhand rights. He disguised his punches well. One punch looked like a left hook until it became something in between a hook and an uppercut before snapping back Ramos's head.

Yuri put on a boxing clinic in the third and fourth rounds. Ramos was unsure of what to do. He couldn't catch Foreman, so he bounced and swirled his hands defensively in center ring waiting to be hit.

The fifth and sixth were slower rounds. Ramos landed a left hook and a right in the fifth for two of his rare connects. He briefly switched to southpaw in the sixth which served to halt Foreman's offense.  While Yuri's punch output decreased in the sixth, Ramos continued to improve his activity. He caught Yuri on the ropes and landed a right in the stanza. Both rounds were close.

Foreman took the fight back in the seventh. He landed a nice counter right and a right from the outside in the round. Foreman took the eighth with his jab. His movement was crisp throughout the fight, forcing Ramos to miss until the end. Even at the end he looked fresh, and if his skills have eroded, you couldn't tell it in this fight.

Foreman won the eight-round affair by split decision. The judges' cards were 77-75 twice for Yuri while one judge had it 77-75 for Ramos. The Jewish Boxing Blog scored the fight 78-74 for Foreman. Simply put, the card for Ramos did not reflect the fight. The first, fifth, and sixth were close and those three rounds were the only ones that could conceivably go to Ramos. Ramos did try to steal some rounds in the waning seconds, but only a novice judge should have been convinced by the effort. Raashaan Myers and Haven Harrington, the announcers of the fight, scored it 79-73 for Foreman.

Foreman's record improves to 35-3 with 10 KOs. Ramos is now 11-10 with 4 KOs.

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