Arthur Abraham – Gilberto Ramirez purse bid this Friday

By Boxing News - 01/03/2016 - Comments

ramirez78By Dan Ambrose: The promoters for WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (44-4, 29 KOs) and #1 WBO mandatory challenger Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (33-0, 24 KOs) have been unable to negotiate a deal for their fight, which Ramirez’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank would like to take place on April 9th on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Tim Bradley fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

If Top Rank and Sauerland Events, the promoters for the 35-year-old Abraham, are unable to come up with a deal, then there is a purse bid tentatively scheduled for this Friday, according to Dan Rafael. The minimum bid will be $300K.

Arum wants the Abraham-Ramirez fight to be the co-feature bout on the Pacquiao-Bradley 3 card. It’s a fight that makes a lot more sense for that spot than Arum trying to schedule a fight between heavyweights Ike Ibeabuchi and Andy Ruiz.

This is a considerable move up in class for the 6’2″ Ramirez, and you have to question whether Arum is seeing things correctly by putting him in with an experienced fighter like Abraham. Ramirez’s only decent opponent he’s faced is Vlasov, who is hardly a great fighter and yet he almost beat Ramirez. That tells you something about Ramirez that he was almost beaten by a limited fighter like Vlasov.

Arum sees the 24-year-old Ramirez as a future star for his Top Rank stable. Never the less, Ramirez needs a great deal of improvement for him to become a star because he’s too easy to hit right now. You can see Ramirez has good offensive skills and excellent size for the 168lb division. But he looked so bad in his fight against Maxim Vlasov last year in January in struggling to win a 10 round decision.

Ramirez came back from that bad performance to easily beat Derek Edwards and Gevorg Khatchikian. Those guys were a step down from Vlasov, so it’s impossible to know if Ramirez has improved as a fighter or it’s a case of Arum matching him against weak opponents in showcase fights in order to pad his record and build up his confidence.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission might not sanction the Ibeabuchi-Ruiz fight with Ibeabuchi not having fought in 17 years. Ruiz is a top contender at heavyweight, and that’s just bad matchmaking to have a fighter just now resuming his boxing career after having spent 15 years in prison fighting him. In his prime, Ibeabuchi would have likely destroyed Ruiz, and it’s doubtful now that he’ll do well.

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