Latest Mexican star in the making, Gilberto Ramirez, the WBO super-middleweight champion, has what it takes to become a pay-per-view star – so says his promoter Bob Arum. Arum, speaking with Yahoo! Sports, said he believes the unbeaten 25 year-old can defeat feared middleweight king Gennady Golovkin, if GGG moves up from 160 to 168 to tackle Ramirez, and that such a win would make “Zurdo,” as Ramirez is known, a genuine box-office attraction.
“I have great confidence in Zurdo, and while I think Golovkin is an excellent fighter, I believe my guy beats him,” Arum said. “If he does, that catapults him into a big pay-per-view star. If you look at the boxing business today, except in England, it totally sucks. Unless you can make a guy a pay-per-view star, you’re just grinding wheels. So a guy like Zurdo, who has the capability and the personality and the ability to be a pay-per-view star, you have to take the shot. And the way to do that is to have him fight Golovkin and win it. He’s got it all, it’s just a matter of putting it together and coming through with a win over a guy like Golovkin.”
Ramirez, a tall (6’2.5”) southpaw, is currently 34-0(24) and he next faces Dominik Britsch on the Crawford-Postol card in Las Vegas on July 23rd. Assuming he wins his first title defence, Ramirez will look for the big fights. Ramirez has been very critical of his countryman Saul Canelo Alvarez for not agreeing to face GGG – even saying Canelo “has no pride,” and “is making boxing look bad” – and he wants this fight and plenty of other big fights. Ramirez says he wants to become a great hero, listing the immortal Muhammad Ali as his inspiration.
Will Golovkin and his team look at taking this, a risky fight (for both men)? It is indeed a big jump up from 160 to 168, the second biggest jump after light-heavyweight to cruiserweight, and Golovkin is no big middleweight anyway. And as he has said before many times, Golovkin wants to clean up at middleweight before he moves up. But Ramirez, or rather Arum, will keep calling for GGG to accept the challenge and move up. With no other obvious middleweight rivals for Golovkin other than Canelo (who, as we all know, says he will not fight GGG until next September) maybe Golovkin will change his mind and agree to add those big eight-pounds to his frame and face a Mexican warrior who DOES want to go to war with him.
Whether he won or lost, Ramirez would be a pay-per-view fighter for at least one fight.