Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (44-1, 30 KOs) against Joe “Common Man” Smith Jr. (28-4, 22 KOs) will now be a WBA cruiserweight eliminator match. The winner will be immediately in line for a world title fight against WBA champion Arsen Goulamirian. Scheduled for twelve rounds, the fight will take place Saturday night from The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and streamed live around the world on DAZN.
There is also a new co-feature. Super middleweight Bektemir “The Bully” Melikuziev (12-1, 9 KOs) faces Alantez “SlyAza” Fox (28-4-1, 13 KOs) in a ten-rounder already scheduled on the undercard. “The Bully” will defend his WBA Intercontinental title in a 10-round fight. The original co-feature, a WBA super flyweight final eliminator between John “Scrappy” Ramirez (12-0, 8 KOs) and Ronal Batista (15-3, 9 KOs), will now take place on the October 21 Rocha-Santillan card.
Goulamirian is a really good fighter, but unfortunately he keeps a Thurman-like schedule: One fight in almost four years.
Do you think it’s a promotional issue or injury influenced? Ive never understood why some boxers waste years, when they only have a few years at peak condition.
I don’t know, exactly. I will say that I heard that his next fight was in jeopardy because his promoter was suing the network in France, trying to force them to televise it because they had a contract, but the network was leaving the boxing business or something like that and I have occasionally heard things about him being injured over the years so – it’s probably a mixture of both.
What’s even more strange is that the last guy who had that title, Beibut Shumenov, was even more inactive. That guy was champion for like 3 years without a fight before they FINALLY stripped him and gave Goulamirian the full title.
Only the WBA would match two light heavyweights coming off lopsided losses in a cruiserweight title eliminator. Lol.
Welcome to boxing world
This fight is interesting. Both lost to the best fighters in their divisions, no shame in that. Smith can punch and I can’t wait to see how Zurdo deals with that. Style wise, this should be a decent fight. Odds are right on. I pick Zurdo to win a decision. 8-4, 7-5, or there abouts.
These two have slow feet and sometimes catch and shoot instead of bobing and weaving. It should be entertaining.
Sure, why not?? Lol
Curious how quick/slow Zurdo will be at 190
Even if this fight is decent, it will be better than that entire “Fight” Card last week. Gotta love PBC. I miss the days of 90’s PPV cards the Don King put on..A little Tyson, Chavez, Julian Jackson, Terry Norris, even Camacho..were good fun. If the main event stinks, at least we had a title fight or 2 to make up for it. I miss HBO. I hear Showtime is done after next year. To bad. It’s about 1,200 bucks a year to watch the sport I Love.. On average that is a PPV a month. And subscriptions to ESPN+, DAZN, and Showtime. Thanks to the Greedy Promotors and the “BELT CARTEL”..
Joe Smith was gifted the title..he looked horrible in that fight. Then against beterbiev he looked like it was his first time in ring..if other guy is decent, he’ll be a heavy favorite.Granted he lost convincingly to Bivol but joe smith did as well, losing every round
Round 10 Bivol staggers to stool after a Smith right at the bell.
I really feel this fight could go either way. It’s a perfect match up for both to see who still has an elite career ahead of them. I’d put my money on Zurdo to win, but again I think it’s gonna be close.
And just like that, elevated to eliminator status? There are only 2 real belt holders I’m at 175. Everyone else is filler tracks on a wack album.
Im taking back part of my comment as I stuck my foot in my mouth. Had I read carefully, I would have realized that the fight was at cruiserweight. But the 2 belt holder at lightheavy is true.