WBC orders featherweights Eduardo Ramirez and Lerato Dlamini to go to war
In recent dates, the WBC has been running around wreaking havoc on the boxing world. They began by undermining some of their own champions with the ridiculous “Franchise belt” back in 2019. Even with full two years to prepare, the long-time sanctioning body is still incapable of supplying any explanation of the “title” that makes any sense. Instead they offer nothing but impotent, jumbled and quite frankly insulting rationales as to why the confusing belt even exists.
More recently when WBC super featherweight champion Oscar Valdez popped dirty, the sanctioning body gave him a pass. What made that overtly egregious is how much the WBC publicly pats themselves on the back for being so proactive with drug testing. Yet, when they were faced with this sticky dilemma, they slandered their own reputation and Clean Boxing Program. They pulled this off by claiming that what Valdez used was not a PED, when it is, and they went with WADA’s protocols despite VADA running their program.
Next, the WBC ordered reluctant boxers Ryan Garcia and Joseph Diaz to fight one another. They are described as reluctant because neither one can find the moxie to face WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney. Neither will fight him despite both having been his mandatory challenger; Diaz still is his mandatory. So not only is this a fight no one outside the fighters themselves had been calling for, the WBC left their own champion twisting in the wind.
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!
This is not to say that nothing good is coming out of the WBC lately. Outside of the flimsy Garcia versus Diaz bout, the WBC ordered featherweights Eduardo “Zurdito” Ramirez (25-2-3, 12 KO’s) and Lerato “Lights Out” Dlamini (15-1, 7 KO’s) to fight. The upcoming prizefight will stand as a final eliminator for the coveted green belt. The Mexican-born Ramirez is only four months removed from his impressive stoppage of Isaac Avelar. With that victory, he picked up the interim WBA featherweight title. Despite the achievement, Zurdito would quickly vacate the title. Luckily for him, he is now lined up for another shot at a title. Only this time, it will be a full world championship.
After losing his professional debut, Lerato Dlamini bounced back marvelously and is now riding a fourteen-bout win streak. During his rise in the ranks, the capable South African has claimed the WBC International, IBF Continental and WBC silver featherweight secondary titles. Having tasted these spoils of war, Lights Out has set his sights on loftier goals. In fact, Dlamini has made it his business to call out Jessie Magdaleno and WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr. While he has been unsuccessful securing these bouts thus far, so long as he defeats Ramirez, Lights Out should be on a crash course with Russell.
By: Bakari Simpson
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