Former unified junior welterweight champ Jose Ramirez had been off for over a year, but he returned to the ring Saturday night and gutted out an easy decision win to keep himself relevant for a potential title shot down the road.

Fighting in front of his home fans in Fresno, California in the Golden Boy promotions main event, Ramirez easily out-pointed veteran Rances Barthelemy over 12 rounds.  The judges scores were: 119-109 x 2, and 118-110 on the third card.

Ramirez VS. Barthelemy has the arena on their feet as we get ready for the final round!!#RamirezBarthelemy | #OrtizDulorme | LIVE on DAZN April 27 pic.twitter.com/xrtpHtQbpJ

— Golden Boy (@GoldenBoyBoxing) April 28, 2024

Jose Ramirez wins over Rances Barthelemy in Golden Boy main event

Recap of Ramirez victory

Ramirez, who has switched promoters in an attempt to get a more lucrative world title shot, did have some problems early with Barthelemy’s southpaw stance, and in particular, him landing a couple of wild left hooks. This was especially the case in the third round, where Ramirez was shaken by one of those lefts and nearly put down. However, that was really the only sustained action from the veteran from Cuba, as Ramirez, now 29-1, 18 KOs, controlled the rest of the fight. He did so, primarily out-slugging Barthelemy on the inside with combinations to the body first and then the head.

Ramirez repeatedly scored with left hands and left uppercuts as the fight wore on and Bartholomew began to show swelling under his right eye.

It was almost a stoppage

Ramirez hurt Barthelemy, now 30-3-1, in the 11th round, as the fight appeared to be close to maybe being stopped by veteran referee Jack Reiss. However Reiss allowed the fight to continue, while warning Barthelemy’s corner that even though it was the final round upcoming, he would stop the fight if the Cuban did not continue to show something.

Barthelemy did just enough in the 12th, occasionally firing back, but Ramirez completely dominated the back half of the fight for the easy decision win.

The 31 year old Ramirez, who held the WBC and WBO 140 lb titles before Scotland’s Josh Taylor defeated him in a decision in May 2021, would love to be back in a title fight either late this year or early next year. He passed on an offer last year to fight WBO champ Teofimo Lopez and then, left Top Rank Boxing altogether.

Certainly, Ramirez’s win in front of a large crowd in downtown Fresno Saturday didn’t hurt his chances

Ortiz makes quick work of Dulorme

Earlier in the night in the co-feature bout, unbeaten Texan Vergil Ortiz scored another easy first round KO. This time landing a one punch, body shot KO over veteran Thomas Dulorme of Puerto Rico. Ortiz improved to 21-0 with 21 KOs as his left to the right side of the body in the final :30 of round one caused Dulorme to crumble and be counted out.

Now, Ortiz gets set to meet former WBO 154 lb. champ Tim Tszyu on the undercard of Terence Crawford’s August title fight in Los Angeles. Tszyu just lost his title in a gruesome, controversial split decision to Sebastian Fundora. Tszyu suffered a huge gash on top of his forehead from a Fundora elbow in the second round and bled profusely for the rest of the 12 round bout. The gash required over 10 stitches to close.

It’s believed the winner of Ortiz and Tszyu will challenge Crawford, who’s fighting Israil Madrimov for the WBA junior lightweight champ, in a massive payday for either of them against Crawford who’s vacated the undisputed welterweight titles to move up to 154 b.