By Sean Jones: Top Rank and ESPN are moving the Jose Ramirez vs. Josh Taylor 140-pound undisputed championship off the May 8th date to not conflict with the Canelo Alvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders 168-lb unification fight on DAZN.
Mike Coppinger is reporting the news of the Ramirez – Taylor fight to be moved of the May 8th date, which is a great move for boxing fans. They won’t have to decide which of the two to watch on the night.
“Sources: ESPN and Top Rank plan to stage the undisputed 140-pound title tilt between Josh Taylor and Jose RamÃrez on a different Saturday in May with Canelo Alvarez-Billy Joe Saunders slated for May 8 on DAZN. Great news for boxing; now both fights will receive proper attention,” said @MikeCoppinger.
There was never any way that Canelo, 30, would budge from the May 8th date, as he’s the bigger star in comparison to Ramirez and Taylor in the U.S. Canelo’s fight with Saunders will likely be a terrible bore, but he is the bigger star than Ramirez and Taylor.
The type of opposition that Canelo needs to be fighting for his fights to be exciting to watch are these guys: David Benavidez, Gennady Golovkin, Jermall Charlo, Artur Beterbiev, and Dimitry Bivol. In other words, fighters that Canelo has no interest in fighting for obvious reasons.
In unquestionably the better fight of the two, IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Josh Taylor (17-0, 13 KOs) and WBC/WBO champion Jose Ramirez (26-0, 17 KOs) will be battling with all four titles on the line.
There are pockets o boxing fans who feel that the Canelo vs. Saunders fight is the superior one to the Taylor vs. Ramirez clash, but you can argue those fans aren’t familiar with Saunders’ spoiling style of fighting.
The British fighter Saunders is clearly going to box Canelo, and make it a hard fight on the eyes in comparison to the rock em’ sock ’em Taylor-Ramirez fight. If Saunders wants to have a shot at winning the fight, he’s going to need to go for a knockout of Canelo.
He’s not going to win a decision against Alvarez. This isn’t Martin Murray that Saunders is facing. Billy Joe is fighting the ‘Face of Boxing’ in North America, and that means he’s going to need a knockout.
In 2019, then WBC 140-lb champion Ramirez beat WBO belt-holder Maurice Hooker by a sixth-round knockout to unify in their match in Arlington. Texas. Ramirez had too much offensive firepower for Hooker to handle in that fight.
Ramirez came back from that match to beat his WBC mandatory Viktor Postol by a close 12-round majority decision last August in Las Vegas, Nevada.
That was a terrible performance by Ramirez, who struggled all the way through with the tall Ukrainian Postol’s boxing skills.
For his part, Taylor defeated WBA 140-lb champion Regis Prograis by a razor-close 12 round majority decision in October 2019 in the World Boxing Super Series tournament in London, England.
It was a fight that Taylor might have lost if Prograis had changed his game plan and fought him on the outside, where Josh’s hand speed and reflexes were ill-suited for that type of warfare.
In Taylor’s last fight, he blew away his IBF mandatory Apinun Khongsong by a first-round knockout last September.
Taylor isn’t known for being a huge knockout artist, but he didn’t need to be, thanks to the IBF giving the over-matched Khongsong a high #1 ranking based on his wins over fluff opposition.
This was another example of the IBF ranking a fighter with zero experience and talent in a spot that he had no business being in. Khongsong fought like a guy that shouldn’t have been ranked in the top 15 at all.