Let’s Forget The Heavyweights For A While And Look Forward To Saturday’s Possible Classic Between Taylor and Ramirez

By James Slater - 05/18/2021 - Comments

Right now in the sport of boxing, there is more ink, more chatter, more reporting being devoted to the story of whether or not the big heavyweight fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua will go ahead now that Deontay Wilder has won his case in court and is legally bound to get a third fight with Fury. This unexpected development, coming just hours after we all thought Fury and Joshua were at last on a definite collision course, has deflated plenty of fight fans.

Basically, amid talk of possible step aside money to be paid to Wilder, of Joshua’s team looking to open new talks with Oleksandr Usyk, we just don’t know what will happen. Time alone will tell. Maybe we fans should move on from the world heavyweight title picture for the time being, and let the powers that be sort things out. In the meantime, there is a fight that will go ahead, as planned, this Saturday night in Las Vegas, between superb 140-pound rival champions Josh Taylor and Jose Ramirez.

This is a fight that has the potential to be a far greater, far more action-packed fight than Fury-Joshua could ever be. We really should be getting behind this fight far more than seems to be the case. A real throwback to the glory days of the sport, when the best fought the best with far less of a fuss made at the negotiating table, Ramirez-Taylor is a rare, four-belt unification showdown.

Both warriors deserve huge respect for wanting to lay it all on the line the way they will do when the bell rings in a few days’ time. It’s refreshing how these two brilliant fighters have proven that, if two fighters really want to fight each other, they can and will do so. Great match-ups like this one should not be such a rare occurrence these days, yet unfortunately, they are – be it down to money, legal issues, or boxing politics.

But again, as we wait for the current heavyweight mess to sort itself out (and, to try and put an optimistic slant on things, it might not turn out too bad if we do get Joshua Vs. Usyk, Fury Vs. Wilder III, with the two winners then colliding at the end of the year) let’s all look forward to what really does promise to be a great, old fashioned, for all the marbles FIGHT.

Who wins on Saturday? Taylor, 17-0(13) is hugely confident, as is the 26-0(17) Ramirez. It’s a pick ’em fight in the opinion of many. I’m going for Taylor to pull out a close decision in a fight that’s so good we will be calling for a rematch.