Gilberto Ramirez vs Jesse Hart 2 on Dec.14 on ESPN+

By Boxing News - 10/10/2018 - Comments

Image: Gilberto Ramirez vs Jesse Hart 2 on Dec.14 on ESPN+

By Mike Smith: Gilberto Ramirez and Jesse Hart will be fighting each other in a rematch two months from now on ESPN+ on December 14, according to Mike Coppinger.

This is a rematch of their thrilling fight last year which saw World Boxing Organization super middleweight champion Ramirez (38-0, 25 KOs) defeat Hart by a close 12 round unanimous decision in September 2017.

Despite being hurt several times by Hart’s powerful uppercuts, Ramirez held on to beat him by the scores 115-112, 114-113 and 115-112. Hart (25-1, 21 KOs) probably could have knocked Ramirez out if he’s poured on the gas each time he hurt him.

Hart was too focused on looking for a one-punch knockout, and not able open up with a barrage of punches after hurting Zurdo. That’s going to have to change for Hart to beat Ramirez ni the rematch, because he’s not likely going to be able to KO him with a single shot the way he’s been doing in most of his fights during his 6-year career.

Hart, 6’3”, has been involved in some lowkey fights lately in beating Mike Gavronski, Desmond Nicholson and Thomas Awimbono. Hart knocked out all three of those guys and looked good. With that level opposition, you can’t estimate whether the 29-year-old Hart has improved since his loss to Ramirez.

Hart is still throwing mostly uppercuts, and not putting his punches together in the way that he’ll need to for him to have a good chance of beating Ramirez, who will be trying to beat him with volume punching again. Hart will need to make some adjustments with his game if he wants to beat Ramirez, since he’s facing a guy with a great chin and the ability to fire off punches all night long without taking a break.

Ramirez has shined lately with wins over Habib Ahmed and Roamer Alexis Angulo. It’s unclear why Top Rank bothered to match the 27-year-old Ramirez with those little known fighters. Title defenses like that makes sense for Ramirez if the idea is to help season him to make him a better fighter for him to one day take on the better fighters in the super middleweight division. If the idea is to have Ramirez milk his WBO title, then they need to keep up the good work. Personally, I think Ramirez is capable of beating better fighters than Ahmed and Angulo to help him improve.

The timing of the Ramirez-Hart2 fight is perfect with it taking place one day before Saul Canelo Alvarez challenges WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion Rocky Fielding on December 15. There will be a lot of interest from boxing fans in both the fights. Canelo will get more publicity obviously for his fight because he’s coming off two fights against Gennady Golovkin. The fans are going to be naturally curious about how Canelo will look fighting someone else a little younger and taller than Golovkin.