By Chris Williams: The World Boxing Council has ordered WBC World light welterweight champion Jose Carlos Ramirez (22-0, 16 KOs) to defend against interim WBO 140lb. champion Regis Prograis (21-0, 18 KOs) in his next fight. A purse bid is scheduled for April 27 if the management for the two fighters is unable to make a deal.
Ramirez’s promoters at Top Rank want to delay the fight with Prograis, and it’s still possible that may happen depending on whether a deal can be made between them. Top Rank would likely need to give Prograis some kind of step aside fee to get him to delay his mandatory title shot against Ramirez.
Prograis, 29, and his promoter Lou Dibella are reportedly open to the idea of delaying the fight with Ramirez if they can come to an agreement with Top Rank. Ramirez’s promoters want Prograis to defend his interim WBC light welterweight title against a challenge on the same card as Ramirez’s in the summer. Ramirez would make a voluntary defense.
The money would have to be good for Prograis to step aside. Top Rank boss Bob Arum thinks Prograis needs to have his name built up more before he faces Ramirez. That’s the reason why he wants Prograis and Ramirez to delay before they fight each other.
Ramirez has a large fan base in the area where he lives in, but not elsewhere. Delaying the Ramirez-Prograis fight might not make much difference in terms of creating more interest if the two of them face poor opposition in mismatches. The only way to really create interest in fights is if both fighters are taking on good opposition and looking sensational in winning their fights. If Ramirez is going to take a soft opponent for his voluntary defense next simmer, then it won’t do much to build up a big fight against Prograis. Ramirez hasn’t has had a lot of mismatches since he turned pro in 2012. It’s hard not to see Top Rank putting Ramirez in with another soft opponent for his voluntary defense in the summer. After all, it might be his last win before he faces Prograis and loses later this year.
“Consistent to the WBC ruling during the world annual convention in Baku, Azerbaijan, the WBC is hereby ordering the free negotiations period for the mandatory fight to unify the WBC and the WBC interim championships,” WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said to ESPN.com in ordering Ramirez to defend against Prograis.
If a step aside deal can’t be made with Prograis, then the 25-year-old Ramirez isn’t going to have much time to enjoy his win over Amir Imam from March 17th last week. Ramirez defeated Imam by a hard fought 12 round unanimous decision to win the vacant WBC 140 lb. title. Ramirez’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank had been hoping to delay his mandatory defense against Prograis until later this year. Arum wanted to have the 2012 U.S Olympian take a voluntary defense in his hometown of Fresno, California before facing Prograis later.
Arum was hoping that Prograis would fight on the undercard so he could build up the fight between them for later this year. The WBC chose to order the Ramirez-Prograis fight anyway. You can understand the move by the WBC, as they’re taken a lot of heat from boxing fans due to WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson not having defended against his mandatory challenger since 2013.
The WBC taking a tougher stance on forcing their champions to defend against their mandatory challengers on time when they’re supposed to is a good thing for the many contenders waiting for a world title shot. When a champion delay fighting their mandatory, they’re not only impacting the career of that fighter, but also the many contenders waiting in line for a world title shot. It slows down their careers as well.
”I signed up to fight the best to become the best,” Ramirez said on his social media site after learning of the news of the WBC ordering him to defend against Prograis. ”We know Prograis should be next and I’m willing to take on the challenge that we both deserve. I will rest and enjoy the moment for a couple of weeks, and then start where I left off. #boxing,” Ramirez said.
It’s good that Ramirez is putting a positive spin on the WBC ordering him to face the talented Prograis, because it would be a shame if he was already kicking and screaming about the fight and looking for a way to get out of it with the help of his promoters at Top Rank. Ramirez should have been aware that if he went after the vacant WBC 140 lb. title, which was vacated recently by Terence Crawford, then he would have to soon mix it up with the unbeaten Prograis.
Ramirez chose to go after the WBC belt knowing full well that he might have to fight Prograis, and now he’s faced with that reality. Ramirez has no intention of vacating the WBC belt, so he’ll have to try his best. He’s not likely to win. As easy as Ramirez beat Imam last Saturday, Prograis will likely handle him in the same way. Prograis perhaps the best fighter in the 140 lb. division today and Ramirez has the bad luck of having to defend his WBC title against him in his first defense. Ramirez has too much pride to vacate his belt, so he’ll have to accept his fate and hope that someone how he can win.
Top Rank will likely do their best to put Ramirez in a situation where he has the advantage by having him defend against Prograis in his hometown of Fresno. That probably won’t be enough, because Prograis knocks out most of his opponents. He doesn’t let the judges score too many of his fights. The last time one of Prograis’ opponents went the full distance against him was in 2015 with Amos Cowart taking a terrible beating in losing an 8 round decision. If that had been a 12 round fight, Cowart likely would have been stopped. It such a one-sided fight that Prograis seemed to take it easy on Coward after the 5th. You could see Prograis letting up on Cowart and not pushing hard to knock him out, because it was target practice for him. It was a very one-sided fight. Cowart would likely beat Amir Imam. Cowart is a very good fighter, but Prograis made him look bad.
In his last fight, Prograis looked very good lately in destroying former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Julius Indongo in a 2nd round knockout on March 9 in Deadwood, South Dakota.
Ramirez suffered a fractured right thumb in his win over Imam last Saturday night. The injury likely won’t delay the fight with Prograis from taking place. Ramirez won’t be able to use his right hand for a month, according to ESPN.