Jose Ramirez: “I want Josh Taylor next”

By Boxing News - 09/17/2020 - Comments

By Barry Holbrook: Fresh off his controversial in over Viktor Postol last August, Jose Ramirez gave Josh Taylor a warning message today in letting him know that he’s next after his title defense against Apinun Khongsong on September 26.

Ramirez and Taylor will be meeting up for the undisputed 140lb championship soon. It’s unclear whether Top Rank, the promoters for the two fighters, will schedule them for late 2020 or wait until 2021.

Crowds are not expected to be allowed back into boxing events until the first quarter of next year. If Taylor can knockout Khonsong early without suffering any injuries along the way, we could see Ramirez-Taylor in December.

Jose Ramirez is coming for Taylor

Taylor (16-0, 12 KOs) is defending his IBF/WBA 140-lb titles nine days from now against his IBF mandatory Khongsong (16-0, 13 KOs) at York Hall in Bethnal Green in London, England.

Josh, 29, needs to beat the little known Thailand fighter Khongsong before getting to the Ramirez fight, and he knows little about him. Unlike most fighters Taylor faces, Khongsong doesn’t have many tapes out there on his past struggles. He’s an unknown that the International Boxing Federation gave a #1 ranking to after he beat a handful of lower-level guys.

Image: Jose Ramirez: "I want Josh Taylor next"

WBC/WBO light-welterweight champion Ramirez (26-0, 17 KOs) scraped by WBC mandatory challenger Postol (31-3, 12 KOs) on August 29 Bubble’ Las Vegas, Nevada, in a fight that many viewed as a robbery. Ramirez won by the scores 115-113, 116-112, and 114-114.

Boxing fans everywhere saw Postol, 36, putting on a masterclass performance against Ramirez (26-0, 17 KOs), and making it clear who the better fighter was between them. Ramirez was the A-side, fighting in his home country, whereas Postol, the visitor from far away from Ukraine.

Taylor has fought an opponent that is aggressive in the same way that Ramirez is in his fights against Ivan Baranchyk and Regis Prograis. The 2012 Olympian Taylor defeated both of those fighters en route to winning the World Boxing Super Series light-welterweight tournament last October.

Baranchyk as the same come forward type of fighting style as Ramirez, but he’s a bigger puncher. Taylor efficiently handled Baranchyk in the semifinal last year in May. Then he defeated previously unbeaten WBA 140-lb champion Prograis (24-1, 20 KOs) by a 12 round majority decision in the final on October 26 in London, England.

Jose needs to refine his game

That was a hard fight for Taylor because of the relentless pressure that Prograis put him under. Prograis got worked over in the first six rounds with the inside fighting from Taylor. However, in the second half of the fight, Prograis made some adjustments and fought outside, where he was the better fighter. That’s how Prograis was able to rally and make it close in the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffXjXsdLztE&t=10s

It’s too bad that Ramirez doesn’t have time to take a tune-up first before facing Taylor, seeing that he needs to make improvements in his game before taking this step up. What we saw from Ramirez in his contest against Postol, he can be outboxed by fighters that use their jab and keep it long.

Jose Zepeda exposed the same flaws in Ramirez’s game that Postol did in their fight in 2019. Ramirez won a controversial 12 round majority decision, and once again, boxing fans disagreed with the results. They saw Zepeda as the real winner.

Top Rank already has plans on matching Ramirez against Taylor after the Scottish fighter defends against Khongsong, which means Jose will need to work on his game in training camp.

Ramirez has been fighting the same way since he was an amateur, and it’s mostly worked for him until last year. Zepeda was the first to show that Ramirez’s brawling style of fighter won’t cut it against the upper echelon fighters at 140.

Image: Jose Ramirez: "I want Josh Taylor next"

Postol further highlighted the holes in Ramirez’s game, cementing that he’s too easy to hit, and he doesn’t know how to box.