By Allan Fox: WBA light heavyweight champion Dimitry Bivol’s manager Vadim Kornilov says they’re interested in negotiating a fight with Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez after his win last Friday night against Sullivan Barrera.
Bivol (18-0, 11 KOs) has a “couple” of options for his next fight, according to his manager Kornikov, and Ramirez (42-0, 28 KOs) is one of them.
‘Zurdo’ Ramirez put on exceptional performance in the main event last Friday on DAZN, knocking out the 39-year-old Barrera (22-4, 14 KOs) in the fourth round of a scheduled twelve round fight at the Banc of California in Los Angeles.
Although this wasn’t a top-five contender that Gilberto defeated, he still felt proud enough about his performance to say this after the fight:
“This is my division. I’m going to take the souls of all the champions in the 175-pound division.”
It was an excellent win for the 30-year-old Ramirez, who showed off his body-punching. There’s no question that the sparring that Ramirez has done with former two-time WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez has helped.
In the past, Ramirez was never a great body puncher, but working with Benavidez appears to have helped him.
This is from @bivol_d manager @VadimKTeam on a possible @ZurdoRamirezz fight: “Yes, we are definitely interested in negotiating the Bivol vs Ramirez fight next. We have a couple of options, but the Ramirez fight is definitely somewhere at the top of the list.”
— Lance Pugmire (@pugboxing) July 10, 2021
This is a risky fight for Ramirez to take after just three contests in the 175-lb division. Ideally, you’d like to see Ramirez take on two or three more top-flight contenders before he challenges for a world title. Going from the 40ish Barrera to a guy like Bivol, that’s a significant step up.
Ramirez needs to fight these contenders to get better acclimated for the 175-lb division:
- Joshua Buatsi
- Marcus Browne
- Badou Jack
- Callum Johnson
The timing of Zurdo Ramirez calling out Bivol, 30, because he looked beatable in his last fight. This wasn’t the same Bivol that had easily beat Barrera, Joe Smith Jr, Jean Pascal, and Isaac Chilemba.
Bivol is coming off a career-worst performance against Craig Richards last on May 1st in Manchester, England. Richards wasn’t supposed to be a problem for Bivol, but he came close to beating him.
As bad as Bivol looked against Richards, it’s still going to be a tough fight for Ramirez against him. Last Friday, Zurdo didn’t look that great through most of the first three rounds.
The slow-handed Barrera was landing a lot of shots, and giving Ramirez all he could handle.
Bivol’s technical boxing skills will make things difficult for Ramirez because he’s not someone that will be caught with the same body shots that Barrera repeatedly was.