By Allan Fox: Joe Smith Jr. will use some of the things he learned from watching Dmitry Bivol to try and defeat Gilberto Ramirez this Saturday night in their WBA cruiserweight title eliminator on October 7th at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Chelsea Ballroom, Las Vegas.
Smith-Ramirez event will be shown live on DAZN starting at 5:08 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT.
The very slow-looking ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez (44-1, 30 KOs) was totally outclassed by WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol last November, losing by a wide twelve round unanimous decision.
Smith (28-4, 22 KOs) saw enough from that fight to feel confident that he could beat the 32-year-old former WBO super middleweight champion Ramirez by being busy and throwing a lot of punches.
In the former WBO 175-lb champion Smith Jr.’s last fight, he was destroyed in two rounds by IBF &WBC champ Artur Beterbiev in June of last year.
Smith looked like he was completely intimidated by Beterbiev walking into the ring, and he did not look like the same fighter who had won his last four fights against the likes of Steve Geffrard, Eleider Alvarez, Jesse Hart, and Maxim Vlasov.
“I think he’s just a very aggressive, busy guy. He’s got long range, long reach, but likes to get inside and mix it up and you know just punch,” said Joe Smith Jr. to Fighthype about his fight against Gilberto’Zurdo’ Ramirez this Saturday night on DAZN.
Ramirez has lost so much hand speed over the last few years, and that could be a problem for him against Smith because he’ll be vulnerable during the exchanges.
“So, I just got to be in great shape and punch with him, and it’s going to make for a great, entertaining fight for sure,” said Smith.
“I feel like I had a few better moments than he did in the fight, but Bivol is a great technical boxer where he picks you apart, and that’s what he did to the two of us,” said Smith Jr. about him & Zurdo Ramirez both losing to Dmitry Bivol.
“It was pretty much similar, but I do believe I did a little better with him. I believe I was probably one of his toughest fights to yet with Bivol, being that I actually hurt him once in the fight, but I could see a few things from that fight [Bivol vs. Zurdo Ramirez] that I could maybe work on to succeed in my fight against him.
“It’s more just really just staying busy and punching when he’s making those mistakes that you see.
“I believe if I’m offered the opportunities, I believe I can get there quickly and get a title shot and possibly become a two-time world champion, but I got to get past Zurdo in order to even consider moving on in the cruiserweight division. But I’m going give it a hundred percent and see what happens,” said Smith.
