By William Lloyd: Promoter Eddie Hearn was in total shock at the lack of promotion for last Saturday night’s undisputed light welterweight championship fight between Josh Taylor and Jose Ramirez at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
In the final week of the Taylor vs. Ramirez fight last week, there was very little hype about the fight anywhere. It almost as if those two excellent fighters weren’t fighting.
IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) took his two titles in against WBC/WBO champion Ramirez (26-1, 17 KOs) and defeated him by a 12 round unanimous decision in the main event on ESPN.
Hearn believes there should have been a lot more effort from the promoters for Taylor and Ramirez in this fight. Those two are promoted by Top Rank, and it’s unclear what prevented them from building the match.
Hearn critical of Taylor vs. Ramirez promotion
“I just got to say it was one of the most criminal promotions I’ve ever seen,” said Hearn to iFL TV on last Saturday’s Josh Taylor vs. Jose Ramirez clash.
“You’ve got a young fighter in Josh Taylor is absolutely exceptional, a great character, funny, fiery, and I got to be honest with you, I didn’t see any, outside of the hardcore boxing audience, I didn’t see anyone talking about this fight.
“I didn’t see it in the media. It was still on TV. Where was the promotion?” said hearn about the lack of hype for the build-up between Josh Taylor vs. Jose Ramirez.
“Like I said, it was a criminal promotion,” said Hearn. “As for the fight, it was absolutely brilliant. Josh Taylor has done everything which a young fighter should do, which is to take the biggest risks throughout for him and his team to take those fights.
“When you look at Baranchyk, the Prograis fight that we promoted. That was a fantastic fight. Now on away soil in Las Vegas with three American judges fighting an American [Jose Ramirez], and goes and does it.
“It was absolutely brilliant, a fantastic fighter that should be coming home and shutting down Edinborough.
“He should be an absolute superstar, and he’s not, and that’s a big, big shame because what he’s done is something you never see.
“So I hope this bit of promotion helps because people should give him massive, massive props because he did it in a fantastic fashion, and he’s very good,” said Hearn.
It’s possible that Top Rank had their hands full last week in discussing the aftermath of Tyson Fury losing his arbitration hearing with Deontay Wilder.
With that mess, it would have sucked the air out of any promotion, no matter how great the fight might be. If Taylor and Ramirez were bigger names, Top Rank could have hyped it even with the intense focus on the Fury-Wilder arbitration case.
Eddie wasn’t approached about Taylor-Ramirez
“I don’t own the rights to Josh Taylor, and no one approached me to put that fight on Sky,” Hearn said. “Did they go directly to Sky? I don’t know.
“If they had approached me, I would have tried to get it on Sky. It’s a brilliant fight.
“Again, I know it wasn’t on a bit platform [FiteTV], but that’s irrelevant. Where was the promotion? I didn’t see anything on that fight, anything other than Josh Taylor’s Instagram or Josh Taylor’s videos or IFL or Boxing Social out in Vegas.
“That’s irrelevant; he’s done the business. He’s cemented his position in British boxing, but like I said, he [Josh Taylor] should be a superstar because he deserves it.
“Josh, I think he has a great team, a great strength & conditioning team, of course. I do think he’s always been tired at 140 lbs, and I think he’s said it himself,” Hearn said.
It’s too bad BT Sport or Sky Sports didn’t televise the Taylor vs. Ramirez fight last Saturday because of what was on the line with the match being for the undisputed 140-lb championship.
Hearn says he wasn’t approached by Taylor and his team to have the fight shown on Sky Sports, but you got to believe someone spoke to them.
Taylor should aim higher than Catterall
“So what else is there for him to do?” Hearn said. “I think he has a mandatory against Jack Catterall or probably a few mandatory’s.
“And I don’t think Josh is going to be looking at Jack Catterall, saying, ‘That’s the next fight for me.’
“I think he’s going to say, ‘Give me the money, give me the fame.’ Is it Mikey Garcia? Is it Terence Crawford? I don’t know.
“But I like the Crawford fight. I saw Bob’s comments about Crawford, saying, ‘He doesn’t do big numbers, I don’t think we’re going to be able to get him in a big fight.
“I think Josh will now be looking at it, saying, ‘Give me the biggest fights out there and the most money possible.’ He’s only 18-0, and it’s brilliant. It’s a fantastic story.
“What I love about it as well is it’s such a small team, isn’t it? With him, there’s zero razmataz. He’s gone out to Vegas with Ben, Dan, a couple of others, Lee McGregor, and he’s done it under the radar, hasn’t he?
“I think it’s a great story, but I think he’s probably pissed off about the noise about the fight. He probably thought, ‘I’m going to do my talking in the ring, and he went in there, and he done it.’ I didn’t see the fight,” said Hearn.
Taylor’s American promoter Bob Arum repeatedly said last Saturday night that his next fight will be against WBO mandatory Jack Catterall over in the UK.
The way Arum was talking, it wasn’t open for discussion for Josh Taylor to fight anyone other than Catterall in his next fight.
Arum said that after Taylor’s fight against Catterall, he could potentially defend his four belts against Teofimo Lopez or move up to 147 to challenge WBO champion Teofimo Lopez.
We don’t know if Arum and Taylor are on the same page, though, as perhaps Josh might not be interested in facing Catterall.
Taylor can make more money fighting Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, Teofimo or moving up to 147 to face Errol Spence Jr, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, or Shawn Porter.
Those are all excellent paydays for Taylor. Even a rematch for Taylor against Regis Prograis would be preferable to him defending against little known Catterall.