By Aragon Garcia: Jose Ramirez will be defending his WBC/WBO light welterweight title against #1 WBC mandatory Viktor Postol on May 9 on ESPN in Fresno, California. @MikeCoppinger broke the news. This fight was supposed to originally take place this month on February 1 in China, but it was rescheduled as a preventative measure due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.
Ramirez (25-0, 17 KOs) and Postol (31-2, 12 KOs) will be fighting in the main event LIVE on ESPN on May 9. It’s unclear who Top Rank Boxing plans on putting on the undercard for the fight.
Ramirez vs. Postol delayed by 3 months
It’s not ideal that Ramirez, 27, is having to wait so long to fight again, as he’ll have been out of the ring for 10 months by the time he faces Postol. That’s a long time for a popular fighter like Ramirez to be sitting inactive.
Ramirez defeated WBO 140-lb champion Maurice Hooker by a 6th round technical knockout last year on July 27 in a unification fight in Arlington, Texas. Afterwards, it was thought that Ramirez would be back in the ring quickly to
This is what happens when promotional companies choose to stage fights in foreign countries rather than sticking them at home. In hindsight, it would have been better for Top Rank to keep Ramirez at home in Southern California fighting in front of his large fan base.
This doesn’t help Ramirez’s career with his title defense against Postol being delayed, as it means he’ll only fight two times in 2020. Unless Top Rank plans on squeezing a third fight for Ramirez in December, it’ll likely he’ll be limited to 2 fights this year.
Postol is from Ukraine, and it made little sense to stage the Ramirez-Postol fight in China rather than in Southern California.
Postol looking to recapture WBC title
Former WBC light welterweight champion Postol has a 2-fight winning streak since losing to Josh Taylor by a 12 round decision in 2018. Postol recently beat Siar Ozgul and Mohamed Mimoune to come back from his loss. The fight against Mimoune was a WBC title eliminator for the Ukrainian Postol.
In October 2015, Postol defeated Lucas Matthysse by a 10th round knockout wo tin the vacant World Boxing Council 140-lb title.
Unfortunately for Postol, he lost his WBC belt against WBO champion Terence Crawford by a 12 round unanimous decision in a unification fight in July 2016. Since that loss, Postol’s career has gone through some turbulence with him losing to Taylor, and beating lower level light welterweights.
2012 U.S Olympian Ramirez has looked impressive since winning the vacant WBC light welterweight title with a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision win over Amir Imam in March 2018.
In Ramirez’s three successful title defenses in the last two years, he’s beaten Antonio Orozco, Jose Zepeda and Maurice Hooker. Postol should make it an interesting for Ramirez, who may need to get out of first gear to beat him.