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The challenge facing cruiserweight champion Gilberto Ramirez on the undercard of Jake Paul versus Julio César Chávez Jr
Coming up at the end of the month, as part of the Jake Paul-Julio César Chávez Jr event that will be shown live and exclusive on DAZN, will be a match between WBA/WBO cruiserweight champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez and former two-time champion Yuniel Dorticos.
It has been an interesting career so far for Ramirez. He turned over to the professional ranks in 2009 at 165lbs in his debut against Jeseth Magallanes and largely stayed in the division for 33 fights until relieving Germany’s Arthur Abraham of his WBO super-middleweight title in Las Vegas in 2016.
One of the confounding mysteries about modern boxing is that Ramirez’s career did not reach the stratosphere immediately afterwards. Instead of becoming the next ‘Canelo’ or even being rumoured to face the Mexican superstar at the time, Ramirez worked his way through middle-of-the-road challengers such as Jesse Hart (twice) and Roamer Alexis Angulo.
It was another six years before Ramirez fought another A-list fighter, and it was then at light-heavyweight that he saw his first loss, over twelve rounds, to Dmitry Bivol.
After losing that fight, Ramirez went up to cruiserweight where he beat Joe Smith and Chris Billam-Smith. And while Ramirez has gained titles along the way at super-middleweight, light-heavyweight, and cruiserweight, he has also gained around thirty pounds in fighting weight.
There has also been no ‘Canelo’ fight, strange because both Mexican, around the same weight division, and have held multiple titles.
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Still, if Ramirez comes through against Dorticos in the next two weeks, it would appear that the stars are aligning for a unification bout at 200lbs against Australian cruiserweight Jai Opetaia.
Ramirez’s opponent in ten days will be the Cuban Yuniel Dorticos, 27-2 (25), who held the WBA and IBF titles in separate reigns. Dorticos is coming into the bout on the back of a three-fight win streak against the undistinguished fighters Jesse Bryan, Deibis Berrocal, and Alan Campa.
Dorticos is rated as #1 by the WBA and #9 by the WBO, although he is listed as ‘inactive’ by BoxRec as his last fight took place a little over a year ago. However, he has not lost in five years, his last reverse being a twelve-round majority decision to Mairis Briedis in Munich, Germany.
Dorticos also has a tenth-round win over Andrew Tabiti in Riga, Latvia, in 2019 and a unanimous decision win over Mateusz Masternak in Orlando in 2018. His other loss in 29 bouts was against Murat Gassiev in 2018, when he was stopped in the last round.
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Jumping back to 2025, Ramirez’s coach Malik Scott – a former heavyweight contender – says that Dorticos is a good opponent who is tough and carries power in his right hand.
Scott said that Ramirez was going to be more than ready.
He added: “There’s a lot on the line, because Zurdo has made so much history in his career. This is just another fight that can add an accolade to his resume concerning beating tough opponents. But this guy he’s fighting is tough.”
Scott also talked about the road ahead to a possible fight between Ramirez and IBF champion Jai Opetaia. Opetaia defended his titles on 8 June against Claudio Squeo, and Scott acknowledged that the pair were moving towards facing each other.
He said: “We all know. It’s no secret that a big unification bout is cooking between him and Opetaia. We’ve got to do multiple things very well. It’s not a surprise that Bivol is the only one who got a victory over [Ramirez, who] is extremely technically sound, is considered one of the best in the world, and someone that has a lot in their toolbox.”
However, he added in regard to a potential Opetaia fight: “First things first, [Ramirez] has to handle business and beat this tough opponent that we have in front of us. It seems like there’s nothing else besides toughness and a good right hand. I just don’t believe that’s enough to beat Zurdo.”
Jake Paul vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr will be streamed exclusively on DAZN PPV, Saturday, June 28. Buy the PPV now here
