By Anthony Saldana
Saturday night inside of the newly opened Virgin Hotel Las Vegas, Central California’s undefeated WBC and WBO 140-LB Champion Jose Ramirez (26-0, 17 KOs) will enter the ring with the opportunity to unify all four major junior welterweight world titles; when he goes up against Scotlands undefeated IBF and WBA Champion Josh “The Tartan Tornado” Taylor (17-0, 13 KOs). The winner becomes the first undisputed champion in the division since 2017, when Terence “Bud” Crawford became undisputed Champion after defeating Julius Indongo.
For the 28 year old Ramirez his journey for supremacy started in 2018 after defeating Amir Imam, capturing the vacant WBC title. Ramirez added the WBO title in July of 2019, stopping the then undefeated Maurice Hooker in six rounds.
Now Ramirez, who is an American of Mexican descent- against Taylor has the opportunity to accomplish something no other Mexican boxer has done.
Become undisputed champion.
“I look forward to making history by becoming the first boxer of Mexican descent to hold all four major world title belts, winning this fight will not only bring glory to the people of Mexico, but to the immigrant workers in California from Mexico as well” Stated Ramirez. “I feel very blessed and honored to be part of such a great event, Taylor is going to bring the best out of me but it’s going to be the little things that I’ve worked on that will show Saturday night.”
Ramirez who is almost a 2-1 underdog going into this championship fight went on to say “Every fight I train like the underdog and I have that mentality that I’m not going to lose. I’ve waited for this moment since I was eight years old, I respect this sport, I’m a very dedicated fighter, I’m a man of faith and I know I’ll find a way to win Saturday night.”
The road for the “Tartan Tornado” Taylor leading up to this undisputed championship fight began back in May of 2019 when the southpaw captured the IBF title with his unanimous decision victory over Ivan “The Beast” Baranchyk. Then in his next fight, Taylor added the WBA title in a hard fought battle with the undefeated World Champion Regis “Rougarou” Prograis at the O2 Arena in London.
Now Taylor who is one victory away from history is extremely confident that Saturday night he’ll be the new undisputed Jr. Welterweight Champion of the world. “I’m extremely focused on Saturday. This fight is a massive piece of history for both of us, and for me to become the first undisputed world champion from my country in the four belt era and the first undisputed world champion from Scotland since my fellow countryman Ken Buchanan, it’s a massive massive piece of history.” Said Taylor.
“ Winning this fight would really cement my name in the history and legacy books. This fight means a lot to me, it means everything to me. I’ve prepared so well, so long and so hard, it’s huge for me this fight, I can’t express how much this fight means to me.” Stated Taylor who went on to say this about Ramirez “His style is come forward and there’s things to exploit Saturday night. I don’t have to go looking for him to find him, He leaves it all in the ring and he comes to fight, so I do believe that he’s there to be hit, and obviously, I come to fight as well, so it’s got the makings of an exciting fight for sure. It’s going to be an absolute barnburner fight.”
The Taylor vs Ramirez fight is the biggest fight of 2021 and with their styles this has the potential to be a FOTY candidate. Both fighters are world champions, both fighters are undefeated and in the prime of their careers and both fighters are fighting for legacy. Taylor is arguably the better technician and boxer.
Ramirez didn’t look his best against two other skilled boxers Zepeda and Postol but did come away with the victory may need to take a page out of the Maurice Hooker playbook and turn this into a firefight. For Taylor he must use effective counterpunching and establish his jab early on as Ramirez who is a great inside fighter will most definitely try to bully his way in on Taylor. If Taylor can work the body of Ramirez early and slow his aggressiveness down by the middle rounds I expect Ramirez to be in for a long night as the footwork and overall ring generalship of Taylor will begin to take over.
I believe the key for Ramirez is also body punching and landing effective combinations on the inside as Taylor will likely want to box and catch Ramirez coming in. This fight may just come down to intestinal fortitude and who wants it more. A unification fight is a must watch for any true fan of the sweet science, and in the day and age of YouTubers, this fight is exactly what boxing needs as Saturday we the fans win.
Ramirez-Taylor headlines a junior welterweight tripleheader starting at 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT on ESPN, ESPN Deportes & ESPN+. The main card will also showcase Jose “Chon” Zepeda in a 10-rounder versus “Hammerin” Hank Lundy and unbeaten sensation Elvis “The Dominican Kid” Rodriguez against former U.S. amateur star Kenneth “Bossman” Sims Jr. in an eight-rounder.
