By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten #2 WBC, #2 WBO, #4 IBF super middleweight contender Gilberto Ramirez (29-0, 23 KOs) will be putting his unbeaten record on the line tonight against journeyman Fulgencio Zuniga (27-9-1, 24 KOs) at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

The Ramirez-Zuniga fight will be televised on HBO Latino at 9:45 p.m. ET/PT.
The 23-year-old Ramirez has wins over the likes of Dan Mouton, Giovanni Lorenzo and Junior Talipeau.

Ramirez is seen by some in the boxing community as a fighter who could ultimately be the next Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in terms of popularity with his Mexican fans. Whether or not Ramirez will ever be as good as Canelo is another question altogether.

As flawed as Canelo is as a fighter, he looks to be the better fighter of the two when compared to Ramirez. The thing with Ramirez is he’s easy to hit, and he’s been matched against weak opposition his entire career.

In just watching some of his fights, it’s pretty clear that Ramirez isn’t in the same league as Carl Froch, Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell, James DeGale and Anthony Dirrell. If Ramirez’s handlers make a mistake of letting him fight one of those guys, they’re going to be as sad when he gets exposed the same way Canelo got exposed in his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr and his questionable wins over Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara.

If Ramirez is to become a pay-per-view attraction along the same lines as Canelo, then his management is going to need to continue to match him up against guys like Zuniga and Lorenzo, because he’ll get beaten if they put him in against a top super middleweight in my view.

I see Ramirez as an Edwin Rodriguez type of talent, but not at the level of Rodriguez is. The southpaw Ramirez is someone that can punch a little and go to the body the way that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr does, but he doesn’t look as solid as Chavez Jr in terms of his chin and his ability to take punishment.

“When we signed him and I went down to Mexico City and saw some clips of his prior fights, I realized I had a real potential superstar on my hands,” Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said via Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. “You never know how these guys will end up, but right now he has such a lovely persona about him. We know he’s a good fighter. But his persona is so good. He could be a major star.”