By Dan Ambrose: Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez and Michael Hunter will both be competing on the same card on December 19th in Texas, according to Zurdo Promotions. The fight card is expected to be shown on FITE TV.
Choosing the December 19th date for this card is a questionable move, though, as the Ramirez and Hunter card will be competing with these popular fighters on DAZN that night:
- Canelo Alvarez vs. Callum Smith
- Ryan Garcia vs. Luke Campbell
- Gennadiy Golovkin vs. Kamil Szeremeta
Maybe it’s just as well that Ramirez will be fighting on the same night as those fighters, as his career is in a nosedive now and heading towards earth. Ramirez’s choice of opponents since moving up to 175 has been questionable and appears that he doesn’t have an interest in taking risky fights.
Gilberto Ramirez taking another low-level fight
The former WBO super middleweight champion ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez (40-0, 26 KOs) will be taking on 38-year-old journeyman Alfonso ‘El Tigre’ Lopez (32-3, 25 KOs).
In the co-feature, fringe heavyweight contender Hunter (18-1-1, 12 KOs) will be facing an opponent still to be determined. With only a month to go before December 19th, it’s unlikely Hunter, 32, will face a live body.
He recently threw his hat in the ring to volunteer to face WBC heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury, on December 5th, but there’s been zero interest on his side ni accepting that challenge.
The 29-year-old Ramirez recently left promoters at Top Rank shortly after moving up to 175, but he’s done nothing since his fourth-round knockout win over journeyman Tommy Karpency in April 2019. For ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez to be fighting another journeyman in Alfonso Lopez, it’s a clear sign that his career is just drifting downhill and no longer going anywhere.
The southpaw Ramirez’s fight against Karpency was his debut at 175 after moving up from 168. Ramirez captured the WBO super-middleweight title in 2016 in beating Arthur Abraham by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision.
Should Ramirez move to cruiserweight?
Somehow, the hulking 6’2″ Ramirez was able to make weight for the 168-lb division and successfully defend his WBO title five times before he outgrew the division and needed to move up to 175.
Now that Ramirez is at 175, it’s unclear whether this is a weight class for him as well, as he looks huge. Ramirez may need to consider moving up to cruiserweight [200-lbs] which will be a difficult fight for him given that he’s a volume puncher, and he lacks power. Even at 168, Ramirez wasn’t a big puncher.
Ramirez’s decision to fight light-heavyweight Alfonso Lopez on December 19th suggests that he’s going to give it a try to stay at 175. It’s expected that Ramirez will go after the WBO title rather than risk his neck challenging IBF/WBC champ Artur Beterbiev or the two WBA champions Dmitry Bivol [Super] and Jean Pascal [World].
Alfonso Lopez has faced mostly lesser opposition since turning pro in 2007. In 2011, Lopez fought former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik but lost a controversial 10-round majority decision.
Many boxing fans had Lopez winning that fight against Pavlik, who at that point in his career was no longer the same guy that had won world titles at 160 and beaten Jermain Taylor.
Unfortunately, Lopez wasn’t able to use that performance as momentum to create success with his career, as he lost to Dyah Davis and Justin Williams (3-5) in 2012. Since those defeats, Lopez has won his last ten fights, albeit against second and third-tier opposition.