By Dan Ambrose: Undefeated #2 WBC, #2 WBO, #3 WBA, #4 IBF super middleweight contender Gilberto Ramirez (29-0, 23 KOs) will be fighting on November 15th or possibly November 29th in a 10 round fight against an opponent still to be determined in San Antonio, Texas, according to Dan Rafael.
The 23-year-old Ramirez has chance of fighting on the undercard of the Terence Crawford vs. Raymundo Beltran fight on 11/29 in Omaha, Nebraska. If Ramirez ends up on the Crawford-Beltran card, then he’d be the co-feature bout. The fight card will be televised on HBO.
Ramirez is a fighter that Top Rank is grooming for world title honors in the future. Just how soon they’re willing to let him fight for a world title is unknown at this point, because he’s still facing very, very weak opposition.
The sanctioning bodies are ranking Ramirez highly despite his lack of competition, and that’s going to put Top Rank in a position whether they want to risk throwing Ramirez in the ring with a champion like WBO title holder Arthur Abraham or WBC champion Anthony Dirrell.
Ramirez won’t be able to get a fight against IBF/WBA champion Carl Froch because he’s mainly looking for bigger money fights rather than little known fighters like Ramirez. WBA champ Andre Ward is still wrapped up in legal entanglements with his promoters so he’s probably not an option either for Ramirez.
It’s not likely that Top Rank would risk Ramirez’s unbeaten record by putting him in with Ward or Froch even if they could set either of those fights up. Ramirez looks decent, but he doesn’t appear to be even close to being in the same level as Froch and Ward.
Ramirez reminds me a lot of Alfonso Lopez, the fighter that gave former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik problems in their fight in 2011. Pavlik beat Lopez by a 10 round majority decision but he was a tough nut to crack. I see Ramirez being on the same level as Lopez in terms of talent and future potential. But he does have a chance of winning a belt after Ward or Froch step down from the sport. As long as Ramirez doesn’t fight someone a little too good for him, he should be okay.
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