Jose Ramirez (27-1, 17 KOs) will be coming off a one-year layoff this Saturday night against Richard Commey (30-4-1, 27 KOs) in their bout at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California. Ramirez-Commey will be shown live on ESPN & ESPN+ starting at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 pm. ET.
Ramirez, 30, has much proving to do to the doubters, who feel he’s slipped a notch in the last three years, looking lackluster in his fights against Jose Pedraza, Josh Taylor, and Viktor Postol.
Taylor beat Ramirez in 2021, beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision in their light welterweight undisputed clash. Ramirez has fought just once since then, beating Pedraza by a 12 round decision a year ago in March.
Ramirez recently had a chance to fight Regis Prograis for his WBC 140-lb title but turned down, complaining of the money not being to his liking. So instead of fighting for a belt, Ramirez is fighting the 36-year-old Commey, who has a 1-2-1 record since 2019.
Ramirez-Commey undercard:
- Seniesa Estrada vs. Tina Rupprecht
- Raymond Muratalla vs. Humberto Galindo
- Antonio Mireles vs. Patrick Mailata
- Ricardo Ruvalcaba vs. Marco Cardenas
- Charlie Sheehy vs. Angel Rebollar
- Jessie Guerrero vs. Eduardo Alvarez
- Subaru Murata vs. Jose Negrete
Ramirez discusses turning down Prograis fight
“The Regis Prograis fight, I’m only 30 years old. I don’t know how much time he has left in the sport, but I’m just getting started at this level of competition, and I’m here to stay for a long time. So that fight can definitely happen. It can still happen 100%,” said Jose Ramirez to Fighthype.
“It can happen next year, who knows? It wasn’t easy but you learn to live knowing the truth, and the truth is it was out of my hands. There was nothing to be made on that fight,” said Ramirez about the perception fans have that he ducked Prograis after the WBC ordered the fight, and it was rejected by Jose in order for him to take a smaller money against Commey.
“Financially, they had no interest to even work with the fight to get the biggest of it’s potential. He doesn’t have a network or promoter behind him. He has nothing behind him. They’re just expecting other promoters to send offers.
“If I have a promoter that publicly says they don’t work with those guys, then I’m kind of left under the bus. My goal is to be active. In December, I told Top Rank that I want to be back in the ring before March.
“They’ve always worked so good with me. We had March set. We had no opponent. There was some names out there, but Richard Commey came up. He was out there in December.
“Nothing was confirmed; nothing was signed until the end of January to make it official. That doesn’t help when people think that Richard Commey was always in the books. He wasn’t.
“The March 25th date was set for sure. I’m thankful that Im with network that has those dates in advantage, and I don’t have to wait until the last minute until a date that opens up or be a co-main event fighter.
“A co-main event fighter has to wait until a main event fighter fights, and then fight on the undercard. I’m a headliner, so I’m very blessed about that. ESPN and Top Rank have really respected that and the value that I bring to be a headliner,” said Ramirez.
Ramirez to fight 3 times in 2023
“It was my goal to be back in the ring as soon as possible this year because the goal is to fight three times,” said Ramirez. “I haven’t really focused on that fight. It’s up for grabs. Either of those two can win for sure,” said Ramirez when asked about the Josh Taylor vs. Teofimo Lopez fight.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if Teo wins, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Taylor wins. It’s one of those things, but I’ll take the winner. That’s it. A lot of these younger fighters can counterpunch, and they have that style where they can counterpunch.
“Taylor likes to come forward behind the shoulder. He doesn’t push his jab all the way out. It’s always right here. Yeah, Teo can definitely take advantage of that an get the proper shot.
“I don’t know where Taylor is mentally because of everything that has happened to him. Sandor Martin, I saw him fight Mikey Garcia and I didn’t think too much of him then, but he showed a lot of skills against Teofimo Lopez.
“Mentally, both of them are going through a lot of hard times because mentally a lot of people are counting Teofimo out. ‘It’s not there no more. He doesn’t have it no more.’ That can really weigh-in if you let it. It can drain you mentally,” said Ramirez.