Jose Ramirez vs. Viktor Postol on February 14 on ESPN

By Boxing News - 10/22/2019 - Comments

By Mark Eisner: WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Jose Ramirez (25-0, 17 KOs) will be defending his titles against his WBC mandatory Viktor Postol (31-2, 12 KOs) on February 14 on ESPN. That’s the working date for the Ramirez-Prograis fight. Ramirez and the 35-year-old Postol are close to getting a deal done, according to Dan Rafael.

The Ramirez-Postol fight was previously scheduled for December, but Ramirez has a hand injury from his unification fight against WBO light welterweight champion Maurice Hooker (26-1-3, 17 KOs) on July 27. Ramirez won that contest by an impressive 6th round knockout to capture Hooker’s World Boxing Organization 140-b title.

Ramirez-Postol purse bid scheduled for Wednesday

If Ramirez and Postol don’t come to an agreement, a purse bid is scheduled for this Wednesday, October 23.The split for the purse bid would be 70-30 in for Ramirez. The location of the purse bid is at the WBC convention in Cancun, Mexico.

Ramirez, 27, will be making his fourth defense of his World Boxing Council light welterweight title that he won last year in beating Amir Imam by a 12 round unanimous decision in March 2018. Since that fight, Ramirez has successfully defended his WBC belt three times in beating Hooker, Jose Zepeda and Antonio Orozco. Ramirez’s victory over Zepeda was a controversial one, as he was beaten to the punch the entire fight in a 12 round majority decision last February.

Ramirez expected to avoid facing Prograis vs. Taylor winner

The winner of this Saturday’s unification fight between WBA 140-lb champion Regis Prograis and IBF champion Josh Taylor could soon be facing the winner of the Ramirez-Postol fight. Prograis (24-0, 20 KOs) holds the WBC Diamond title, and he’s been told by WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman that he’ll be able to fight for the WBC title against Ramirez. If Ramirez wants to avoid fighting the Prograis vs. Taylor fight, he can vacate the WBC title, and then hold onto his WBO strap.

It’s unclear whether Ramirez will try and side step the fight with the Prograis-Taylor fight, but you can’t blame him if he does. Taylor and Prograis look like they’re the best fighters in the light welterweight division right now. There’s talk that Ramirez will vacate his WBC and WBO 140-lb titles after he defends against Postol, and he’ll then move up to 147 to go after the bigger money fights against Manny Pacquiao, Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford.

Postol has two-fight winning streak

Former WBC light welterweight champion Postol, 35, has won his last two fights against Siar Ozgul and Mohamed Mimoune.  He was beaten by Josh Taylor by a 12 round unanimous decision last year in June 2018 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Postol gave Taylor a good fight, but ultimately came up short. In October 2015, Postol stopped Lucas Matthysse in the 10th round to briefly capture the WBC 1400-lb title. In Postol’s first defense of his WBC belt, he lost to Terence Crawford by a 12 round unanimous decision in July 2016.

The 5’11” Postol is a good fighter, but he lacks the punching power to compete with the following elite level light welterweights:

  • Regis Prograis
  • Josh Taylor
  • Jose Ramirez
  • Mario Barrios
  • Ivan Baranchyk
  • Subriel Matias.