Via Jim Calfa: Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez believes his fight against WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol will be bigger following his recent victory over Canelo Alvarez last May.
Unbeatable WBA No. 1 Ramirez (44-0, 30 KOs) has been trying against Canelo for years with no luck, but he’s still happy because Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) was the one to hit. beat him.
Ramirez, 30, wants to rise from obscurity by beating the next Bivol and earn the fame he just received with a win over Canelo.
Whether ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez is the next for Bivol remains to be seen, as his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing recently talked about wanting to fight him for the #2 WBA. Joshua Buatsi is next in the UK.
If not for him, Hearn would like to see Bivol win this Saturday’s bout between IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and WBO champion Joe Smith Jr.
“The fight I want is Dmitry Bivol,” Zurdo Ramirez said to DAZN. “The fact that so many people know Bivol now is a good thing because when I fought him, I’ll take everything he has, especially Ramirez said.
Promoted Golden Boy Ramirez will have a 4th round knockout victory over previous WBA 1st place contender Dominic Boesel (32-3, 12 KOs) on May 14 at Toyota Center in Ontario, California.
Ramirez rehydrated to over 200 lbs for the Boesel bout after weighing at 174, leading some boxing fans to see him as a fighter who should be campaigning in cruiser rather than light heavyweight.
Ramirez’s size compared to Boesel was shocking as it looked like a small weight fighting a light weight at night.
With that said, Ramirez looks sluggish with his punches and not the fighter he was earlier in his career as he held the 168-lb WBO belt from 2016 to 2019.
“I fought Bivol before Canelo, but he said no, he wanted Canelo first, but it ended up being a good thing for me because he beat Caneloand you see the reliability of the boxer,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez will get more attention from boxing fans when he battles Bivol for the WBA title, but it could affect his career if he loses badly.
The last thing Ramirez needed was to see Bivol defeated by the entire boxing world instead of failing in the sights of his fans.
If Ramirez had fought Bivol before he beat Canelo, losing to him wouldn’t have received as much attention as he does now. Bivol looks like a better fighter than Ramirez at this point, given how slow Zurdo has become since he was 175.
“The credibility that Bivol had, and now when I fight him, you will see the reliability that Zurdo Ramirez has. I want to win the world again, unify the titles and eventually become a legend,” said Ramirez.
As for Ramirez, it sounds like a pipe dream, when it comes to gaining prestige by defeating Bivol.
