ARLINGTON, Texas -- Junior welterweight Jose Ramirez dreamed of winning a world title as a youngster but said even beyond that, his goal was to unify belts.
Ramirez realized his dream and did so in explosive fashion Saturday night in an action-packed fight, as he stopped Maurice Hooker in the sixth round with an onslaught of heavy punches to unify two 140-pound world titles at the College Park Center on the campus of the University of Texas at Arlington.
"I am very happy. This just lets me know that I am on the right track to becoming a better fighter, a better professional. I am ready for anyone now," Ramirez said. "I felt very confident within my skills just like any fighter. A real champion has faith in themselves. I believe in my team, I believe in myself. I came here with one mission -- to become the unified champion -- and I did it. I am the very best guy."
Ramirez, who like Hooker was making his third title defense, typically fights in Fresno, California, near his hometown of Avenal, but he went on the road without hesitation to Hooker's home area and showed him who is boss in a tremendous performance.
That the fight was even made came as a surprise to many because of the rarity of fighters aligned with different broadcasters meeting for such high stakes. But the fight was made fairly quickly and easily; Ramirez promoter Top Rank, which has a long-term deal with ESPN, brought him to fight on a card put on by Matchroom Boxing's Eddie Hearn, Hooker's co-promoter, who has a deal with DAZN, because both fighters very much wanted the bout and because the Hearn/DAZN camp put up more than $4 million for the Ramirez side to make it happen.
The result was a very exciting fight that had the fans cheering throughout.
"Jose cemented himself as a superstar with that performance," Rick Mirigian, Ramirez's manager, said. "A lot of people thought the fight would go the distance, that it was a 50-50 fight. We knew we had a strong camp. That's why I said Ramirez in seven. I just had that feeling."
The boxers opened with a fast pace, and a left to the body from Ramirez knocked Hooker into the ropes in the opening seconds of the fight. Later in the round, referee Mark Nelson ruled a knockdown even though Ramirez clearly stepped on Hooker's foot, causing him to go to the canvas. Hooker was upset but responded with some solid shots in what amounted to a battle of his right hand against Ramirez's powerful left hand.
"The first-round knockdown didn't affect me," Hooker said. "I just knew I had to come back and use my jab. When he had me on the ropes, he didn't really catch me with anything. I was blocking everything."
Ramirez forced Hooker to the ropes in the second round and landed several hard shots. Hooker needed to fight at longer range but could not get off the ropes as Ramirez banged away to the head and body. He finished the round by whacking Hooker with a clean right hand to the jaw.
There was wild action in the third round as they battled back and forth and were engaged in a heated exchange as the bell rang, forcing Nelson to jump between them. The referee almost got hit while he separated the fighters as the crowd mostly drowned out the sound of the bell.
Ramirez (25-0, 17 KOs), 26, bloodied Hooker's nose in the fourth round, another one during which they stood in the center of the ring for long stretches and exchanged.
They were chest to chest in the hellacious fifth round, and Ramirez hammered Hooker to the body when they were in close. Left hook after left hook after left hook, with an uppercut mixed in. When they separated, it was Hooker who landed hard shots upstairs and downstairs.
"[Trainer] Robert [Garcia] told me, 'I know you like to brawl, but Mo is a good fighter, and he's going to try to box you because he is a very smart fighter,'" Ramirez said. "But what I did was came in different, I surprised him. He landed good shots, but they were on my forehead, not the right placement. But he didn't land his best right hand. I had to be very careful in there.
"I went back to my fundamentals. Working my jab, and I was closing the distance. Then when I got in range, I gave him that one-two jab that just works so well for me."
The end came in the sixth round in explosive fashion, seemingly out of nowhere, as Ramirez caught Hooker with a brutal left hook that rocked him badly and sent him into the ropes. Ramirez followed by landing nine more unanswered blows, including left hooks and right hands clean on the chin that had Hooker out on his feet as Nelson jumped in to stop it at 1 minute, 48 seconds.
Hooker (26-1-3, 17 KOs), 29, of Dallas, had been a road warrior but was finally getting a chance to defend his title at home after winning a vacant belt on the road and making two defenses on hostile turf. But the homecoming did not end how he envisioned it.
"I just lost focus for a quick second," Hooker said. "I was playing around with my jab hand and I lost focus. That just shows you, one second with a top fighter can change everything."
Ramirez now has half of the four major belts in the weight class and could be in line to fight for the undisputed title in the first half of 2020, but probably not in his next fight.
"We'll look to bring Jose back in November as long he's healthy after this fight," Mirigian said, though Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti said Ramirez's return more likely would be in December. "We will look to keep him active, maybe do a mandatory defense. But we want the winner of the [World Boxing Super Series] tournament."
Regis Prograis (24-0, 20 KOs) and Josh Taylor (15-0, 12 KOs) are due to meet to unify the other two major belts in the final of the World Boxing Super Series on Oct. 5 at a site to be determined in the United Kingdom.
Prograis, who was ringside, and Taylor have both said they were interested in fighting Saturday night's winner. Ramirez reiterated his desire to unify the division, and it could happen, but he threw a dig at Prograis and Taylor.
"I signed up to fight against the top fighters," Ramirez said. "Me and Hooker stepped up to make this happen. They have to do it because it is a tournament."