Free agent former WBC & WBO light welterweight champion Jose Ramirez is in the process of inking a deal with Golden Boy Promotions after leaving Top Rank last fall.
Dan Rafael reports that the 31-year-old Ramirez (28-1, 18 KOs) rejected a $2 million offer to take on WBO light welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez for February in what would have been a multi-fight deal. Rafael says Top Rank “declined its right to match Golden Boy’s offer.”
Leaving old pastures
It makes sense for Ramirez to turn down an offer to fight Teofimo if he wasn’t confident of winning. The way that Teo looked beating Josh Taylor last year suggests that Ramirez wouldn’t have much chance of that version of Teofimo.
Ramirez’s once-promising career has slowed to a crawl since 2020, fighting just once a year for the last four years and losing his WBC & WBO 140-lb belts to Josh Taylor by a narrow 12 round unanimous decision in May 2021.
Since then, the Southern California native Ramirez has fought just twice, defeating Jose Pedraza and Richard Commey.
Golden Boy’s Embrace
It’s unclear what Golden Boy plans on doing with Ramirez because if he’s only going to be fighting annually, he could age out before he gets another chance to fight for a world title.
Golden Boy has a lot of Mexican fighters in their stable, and Ramirez would fit in, but it remains to be seen whether they’ll be able to get him the big fights that he needs to get the big paydays and capture a world title.
Ramirez’s last six fights
– Richard Commey
– Jose Pedraza
– Josh Taylor: Loss
– Viktor Postol
– Maurice Hooker
– Jose Zepeda
What would be perfect for Ramirez is if Golden Boy matched him against superstar Ryan Garcia, considering that would give him a big payday.
However, Ryan might not want to take that kind of risky fight, given Ramirez’s talent and his amateur pedigree, having fought in the 2012 Olympics.
