By Jim Calfa: Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez believes his fight with WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol is bigger after his recent victory over Dominic Bösel last May.
The unbeaten #1 WBA Ramirez (44-0, 30 KOs) has been pushing for a fight against Canelo for years without luck, but he was still happy that Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) was the one that beat him.
Ramirez, 30, wants to rise from obscurity by defeating Bivol next and gain the fame that he just received with his win over Canelo.
Whether ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez is next for Bivol remains to be seen, as his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing has talked recently of wanting to match him against #2 WBA Joshua Buatsi next in the UK.
If not him, Hearn would like to see Bivol take on the winner of this Saturday’s match between IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and WBO champion Joe Smith Jr.
“The fight I want is Dmitry Bivol,” said Zurdo Ramirez to DAZN. “The fact that now a lot of people know Bivol is a good thing because when I fight him, I’m going to get everything he has, especially the world title,” said Ramirez.
The Golden Boy promoted Ramirez is coming off a fourth-round knockout win over previously ranked #1 WBA contender Dominic Boesel (32-3, 12 KOs) on May 14th at the Toyota Center in Ontario, California.
Ramirez rehydrated to over 200 lbs for the Boesel fight after weighing in at 174, leading to some boxing fans seeing him as a fighter that should be campaigning at cruiserweight rather than light heavyweight.
The size of Ramirez compared to Boesel was shocking because it looked like a small heavyweight fighting a light heavyweight on the night.
With that said, Ramirez looked very slow with his punches and not the fighter he’d been earlier in his career when he held the WBO 168-lb title from 2016 to 2019.
“I had the fight with Bivol before Canelo, but he said no, he wanted Canelo first, but it ended up being a good thing for me because he beat Canelo, and you see the credibility of the fighter,” said Ramirez.
Ramirez will receive more attention from boxing fans when he fights Bivol for his WBA title, but that might backfire on his career if he loses badly.
The last thing Ramirez needs is to be seen getting beaten by Bivol by the entire boxing world instead of the loss going under the radar of fans.
If Ramirez had fought Bivol before he defeated Canelo, losing to him wouldn’t receive as much attention as it would now. Bivol looks like a much better fighter than Ramirez at this point, given how slow Zurdo has become since moving up to 175.
“The credibility that Bivol has, and now when I fight him, you will see the credibility that Zurdo Ramirez has. I want to be world champion again, unify titles and eventually become a legend,” said Ramirez.
It sounds like a pipe dream on Ramirez’s part, talking about gaining credibility by beating Bivol.
