Sandy Ryan Wins WBC 140lb Title vs Zamora By MD

Sandy Ryan has become a two-weight world champion, though she did it the hard way, and for long spells she did it in a manner that will have her corner reaching for the aspirin. In front of a lively Nottingham crowd, Ryan edged Mexico’s Karla Ramos Zamora by majority decision to claim the vacant WBC world super lightweight title over ten rounds, two judges scoring it 97–93 with a third at 95–95.

Ryan began as though she had every intention of keeping it simple. She was light on her feet, circling off the ropes, fencing with the jab and touching Ramos Zamora before the Mexican could set herself. The first round was the picture of what Ryan wanted: ten jabs landed, Zamora largely made to walk onto air, and the champion-in-waiting looked levels above.

The trouble for Ryan was that she kept accepting the invitation to fight Ramos Zamora’s kind of fight. Once Zamora found the range to the body and got close enough to make the exchanges scruffy, Ryan too often stood her ground and traded when there was no need. BoxingScene had it as early as the third, Ryan drawn into a stand-up exchange and outworked as punches bounced off her chin, and the pattern repeated, Ryan producing neat work at distance and then undoing it by lingering where Zamora could hustle.

CompuBox numbers told the story of two very different approaches. Zamora threw the kitchen sink, 894 punches across the ten rounds to Ryan’s 641, and she actually shaded the total landed count by 256 to 254. But Ryan was the cleaner operator, landing at 39.6% to Zamora’s 28.6%, and the jab was her one clear statistical edge, 76 jabs landed to Zamora’s 32. Where Zamora did her best work was with sheer volume and with the heavier punches, outlanding Ryan 224 to 178 in power shots and banging away to the body, credited with 87 body connects to Ryan’s 39.

There were rounds where the fight tilted sharply, and Ryan will know exactly which ones. The seventh, in particular, was the kind of round that makes a boxer doubt her discipline. BoxingScene noted Zamora trudging forward, digging to the midriff and looping upstairs. Compubox had Zamora landing 42 of 104 total punches in that round as Ryan tried to answer back with 30 of 78. The eighth swung back to Ryan on the numbers, her best jab round of the fight, 12 of 24, but even then Zamora kept coming and kept throwing, refusing to be discouraged by the cleaner shots.

By the time the tenth arrived, it felt, in the arena and on press row, like it could hinge on who finished stronger and who looked in command of the last impressions. BoxingScene suggested it seemed like anyone’s contest and that Zamora might even be ahead, and both boxed with that urgency. Ryan finally did what her skillset demanded, timing a right hand over the top and then turning over shots to the body, trying to create separation with quality rather than trying to match Zamora’s output. The final round was frantic in volume, Ryan landing 33 of 105, Zamora 34 of 110, and then the long wait for the scores ended with Ryan taking the belt without much appetite for celebration.

For Ryan, already a former WBO welterweight champion, it is another world title to add to a career that has had plenty of turbulence and little time for comfort. For Ramos Zamora, it was a losing effort that demanded respect: she forced the fight into awkward corners, made the favourite work every second, and left with a share of a judge’s card and the satisfaction of having pushed a proven world-level boxer into a proper argument.