By Lance Pugmire

LAS VEGAS – Jesus Ramos Jnr is ranked among the top 10 junior middleweights by each sanctioning body, but at this point in the 24-year-old’s career, he’s looking to elevate his reputation each time out.

On Saturday, Ramos did that by attracting the attention of his returning to the ring on a seven-week break, and then he added the cherry on top by scoring a seventh-round technical knockout of replacement opponent Guido Emmanuel Schramm in the co-main event of a Premier Boxing Champions Prime Video card at Mandalay Bay.

“Mission accomplished,” said Ramos, 23-1 (19 KOs), of Casa Grande, Arizona.

Displaying an effective power-punching advantage, Ramos tested the chin of Argentina’s Schramm and showed creativity with an uppercut, a left to the body and a right to the head in a sudden third-round sequence.

That body-head combination was proof that Ramos’ rapid return has sharpened his skills as he seeks bigger fights each time out in the sport’s deepest division – which counts PBC promotional mate Sebastian Fundora, who defended his WBC and WBO belts against Chordale Booker in the main event.

Although the favored Fundora is likely bound for a mandatory WBA title defense against Xander Zayas next, Ramos has spoken of pursuing former undisputed champion Jermell Charlo, who is expected to return from a near-two-year absence by the summer.

Ramos showed he’s ready by finishing Schramm with a combination in the seventh that weakened the Argentinian and convinced referee Mark Nelson to stop the fight at the 1-minute 38-second mark.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.