Ramirez Waiting For Postol Bout To Eventually Happen
Twice now, Jose Ramirez has trained hard for a bout with Viktor Postol. Both times he found out that their scheduled fights will not be taking place. Now, Ramirez (25-0) is just waiting to find out when he can get back to properly preparing for his opponent.
“They keep saying late June, July,” Ramirez stated to Boxing Scene. “But it just depends. I think Postol is back in the Ukraine right now. They have to think about when they will allow him to come to the United States to have his proper training camp with Freddie Roach. So, we’ll see, man. I’m just doing this to stay sharp. I know Top Rank will give me the opportunity to fight early on because of the two times that my fight got postponed. So, I’m just gonna be ready for that.”
The two were supposed to fight in China, but the bout was postponed due to the coronavirus. They were then booked for May in California, but it was once again postponed due to the pandemic getting worse in America. Top Rank’s Bob Arum has expressed interest in returning to action sometime in the summer, in places without an audience. If things were able to work out, Ramirez and Postol could be part of those plans.
Ramirez (25-0), the WBC/WBO Super-Lightweight Champion, is coming off of a TKO-win over Maurice Hooker back in July 2019. He won the WBO Super-Welterweight Title to go along with his WBC belt. The 27-year-old won the WBC belt back in 2018, beating Amir Iman for the vacant title. With the long layoff, preparing twice for a bout was something Ramirez did not have in mind.
“The first time was a full camp that I went through,” Ramirez went on to say. “The fight got canceled about a week and a half before. But the second time, I took about four weeks [after the first postponement] to let my body recover from sparring and everything we go through. And then we had a second date, May 9th, and it was canceled again, for the second time. But I was only in camp for about four weeks when it got canceled again. Now I’ve let my body recover from all that. I started fresh [last week] and I’m just pre-conditioning myself, kind of like a pre-camp, staying loose, staying sharp.”
At 27, Ramirez is in the prime of his career. Debuting in 2012, Ramirez has slowly added bouts to his resume. He fought twice in 2017, 2018, and 2019. The ideal goal would be to do the same in 2020 to advance his career. The current situation is doing the opposite.
“It holds us back in our careers,” Ramirez said. “We expected to fight three times this year by starting early. And now, you know, our plan is gone. That’s somewhat frustrating, but things happen. I’m a guy who likes to stay focused. I don’t make up excuses. I take things how they go. I know how to adapt. I’m just ready to go back in there. Hopefully, everything opens up pretty soon, and I’ll be ready to start my official camp and get ready to go through with this fight.”
Postol (31-2) is coming off of a unanimous decision win over Mohamed Mimoune back in April 2019 to become the mandatory challenger. He is on a two-fight win streak following a 1-2 record from 2016 to the middle of 2018.
Ramirez is interested in a fight against Josh Taylor but will remain focused on his bout against Postol, whenever that may be.