By Brad Slotnick: Josh ‘The Tartan Tornado’ Taylor 17-0, 13 KOs) envisions himself having an easy time exploiting the flaws in the come-forward style of fighting that Jose Ramirez will be using this Saturday in their unification fight in the headliner on ESPN at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
While many people view the Taylor-Ramirez 12-round fight as a near 50-50 contest, Taylor sees this as a slam-dunk win for him.
The lack of excitement that Taylor, 30, shown for this encounter is far less than what he exhibited for his unification match against former WBA light welterweight champion Regis Prograis in October 2019 in the World Boxing Super Series final in London, England.
Taylor was totally amped for the Prograis fight, which makes sense because it ended up being a difficult match.
What is disappointing about the Taylor vs. Ramirez fight is the lack of promotion. It appears that Top Rank has been busy the entire week trying to come up with a solution of heavyweight Tyson Fury losing his arbitration case against Deontay Wilder.
They want to save Fury’s August 14th mega-fight against Anthony Joshua, and it appears to have taken much of the focus on the Taylor -Ramirez promotion for Saturday.
Taylor: I won’t have to go looking for Ramirez
“It’s just another day at the office for me on Saturday, I’m totally confident about this fight,” said Josh Taylor about his match against Jose Ramirez. “I’m not getting anxious, and I’m full of confidence going into this fight.”
It’s interesting that Taylor is so unconcerned about what Ramirez brings to the table because he should be worried. Ramirez is clearly one of the best fighters that Taylor will have fought, and he amounts to be a huge step up in class for him compared to his last opponent Apinun Khongsong last September.
That was a guy that the International Boxing Federation had elevated to the #1 spot without him having beaten anyone credible.
As a result, Taylor blew Khongsong out in one round, making the IBF look bad for having given the totally unprepared Thai fighter such a high ranking with their organization.
Unlike the little-known Khongsong, Ramirez has world-class experience and an implacable amateur background.
“The past is the best, I’m not too interested in what he’s done before,” Taylor continued about Ramirez. “It’s about what I do on Saturday.
“The things that I’ve seen and the holes in his game and things that I think I can exploit on Saturday,” Taylor said. “I think he’s vulnerable full stop, and I think he’s going to be easy to find.
“I don’t think I’m going to have to go looking for him to hit him, that’s for sure,” said Taylor.
Ramirez will have to come with a great game plan for him to have a shot at winning this fight against Taylor. It would be a good idea for Ramirez to study the Taylor-Prograis fight if he hasn’t already to make sure he doesn’t repeat the same mistakes as his fellow American.
