Oscar De La Hoya Pursuing Dmitry Bivol vs Gilberto Ramirez Title Fight!
Dmitry Bivol (20-0, 11KOs) is in need of an opponent in the fall after Canelo Alvarez elected to face Gennady Golovkin for a third time. Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing recently stated that there were no shortage of options for Bivol for his next fight. However, there was no mention of Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (44-0, 30KOs) as a possible opponent.
On May 14, Zurdo made easy work of the #1 ranked fighter in the WBA, Dominic Boesel, stopping him in four rounds. That fight was a title eliminator, which put Ramirez on the cusp of challenging Bivol, a fighter he’s been seeking since moving up from the super middleweight division. Furthermore, there was recently another WBA eliminator between Joshua Buatsi and Craig Richards, which Buatsi won.
So what’s next for Ramirez? His promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, told Seconds Out that a Bivol-Ramirez bout will likely happen. although he never mentioned a timeframe.
“It’s a very likely fight to happen. We’re waiting for the WBA to make their decision and make it official. But Zurdo Ramirez has been waiting for his big shot for a while now and this is it. So we’re excited to position him at the very top, next in line to Bivol. I think it’ll be a great fight and I think it will be a fight of styles, a fight of revenge for Canelo. It has all the ingredients to become a special fight, so we’re waiting on the WBA to make their ruling and we’ll take it from there.”
Outside of a rematch with Canelo Alvarez and a possible undisputed fight against the the Artur Beterbiev v Joe Smith Jr. winner, a fight with Gilberto Ramirez makes a ton of sense. Ramirez is a big, strong light heavyweight with excellent power and good boxing skills. He’s also a former world champion.
We here at 3Kings Boxing will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as they become available.
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By: Jerrell Fletcher
