Gabe Rosado vows to shock Gilberto Ramirez on Saturday

By Boxing News - 03/14/2023 - Comments

By Jake Tiernan: Gabe Rosado and former WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez met today for their final press conference before their 12 round headliner fight at light heavyweight on March 18th on DAZN at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California. The Ramirez (44-1, 30 KOs) vs. Rosado (26-16-1, 15 KOs) card will begin at 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT.

The 31-year-old Ramirez was beaten comprehensively by WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol last November in Abu Dhabi.

That was the first defeat of Ramirez’s 14-year-old professional career, and he’s had difficulty coming to terms with how badly he was dominated by Bivol.

Losing is always bad for fighters suffering their first career defeats, but with the way Ramirez was never even remotely competitive, he’s still trying to make sense of what happened to him against Bivol.

Golden Boy is feeding the 37-year-old Rosado to Ramirez to give him a pick-me-up, but it’s still far from certain that he’ll win.

Ramirez looks slow since moving up to 175 in 2019, and with the way he’s routinely rehydrating to over 200+ lbs, he needs up to cruiserweight soon, where he won’t have to continue to lose 30+ lbs of water weight when he weighs in.

Surprisingly, Ramirez still hopes to capture a world title at 175, but the only way that happens is if he can hang around long enough for Bivol and IBF/WBC/WBO light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbievv to retire.

“I’m back with Freddie at Wildcard. It’s my character; I want to challenge myself,” said Gabe Rosado during Thursday’s final press conference for Saturday’s fight with Gilberto Ramirez. “I know how to bounce back.

“It’s a fight that will go down in history for a great fight. I know what Zurdo is going to bring, and I am too. Zurdo brings a lot, so I’m going to be prepared. I’m ready you shock the boxing world again.”

If Rosado can stop Ramirez as he did against Golden Boy prospect Bektemir Melikuziev in his third round knockout win in 2021, it could send him into retirement. Losing to Rosado would be a massive setback for Ramirez’s career, and it would be clear at that point that he won’t be winning any world titles at 175.

“After the last fight, I want to prove myself. I was in a dark place, but now it’s a new start, and I’m ready,” said Gilberto Ramirez about his feeling down after his loss last November against Dmitry Bivol. “I have Rosado in front of me, and after I win, hopefully, I can get a world title again.”

It’s going to take Ramirez a while before he gets another world title shot at light heavyweight. Beating the journeyman Rosado won’t be good enough to put Ramirez back in position for a world title shot.  He’s going to need to be some ranked contenders and more than one or two for him to get ranked at #1 again.

Golden Boy isn’t going Ramirez any favors matching him against Rosado because it’ll take centuries for Gilberto to get pushed up the rankings if he’s going to be matched against this kind oof opposition.

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