Jose Ramirez Expects a Better Imam Than The One Granados KO'd

By Steve Kim

From the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, Jose Ramirez (21-0, 16 KO's) takes on Amir Imam (21-0, 18 KO's) for the vacant WBC junior welterweight title.

This match-up will be the main event of Top Rank's ESPN televised card this coming Saturday night.

Imam has suffered just one loss, an eighth round TKO loss to Adrian Granados, who came in as a heavy underdog on November 28th, 2015 in Quebec City and pulled the shocking upset. Imam was already in line to face then WBC champion Viktor Postol, but decided to face Granados in a dangerous 'stay-busy' fight.

Like Granados, Ramirez is a high-volume, pressure fighter. When asked if he had seen this fight and will perhaps use the blueprint of Granados as a template, Ramirez answered - "I haven't seen the whole fight completely. I've seen clips of the fight and I visualize some of the fight too, like when I'm hitting the heavy bag. I see what could work, what might not work against Amir Imam. But I try not to pay too much attention to Amir Imam's history, his past fights."

Since that loss, Imam his ripped off three consecutive stoppage victories.

"I'm expecting an Amir Imam who's going to come to try to win the world title and that keeps me sharp, that keeps me working hard, that keeps me more motivated to expect a better Amir Imam than the one I seen against Adrian Granados," said Ramirez, who is coming off a second round KO of Mike Reed back in November.

"Im always the type of fighter I practice on my craft more than anything and I focus on what I'm going to bring to the table because sometimes when you stress about your opponent you might bring to the table than you kind of lose concentration on your own skills," stated Ramirez.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.