By Miguel Rivera
The first Mexican fighter in history to capture a super middleweight world title, Gilberto 'Zurdo' Ramirez, wants to continue making history in his country by fighting the remaining beltholders in his division.
Ramirez (34-0, 24 KOs) will make the first defense of his WBO championship on July 23 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena against German contender Dominik Britsch (32-2-1, 11 KOs). This will be in his second consecutive pay-per-view event, as part of the HBO PPV undercard to Terence Crawford vs. Viktor Postol.
Ramirez captured the world title in April with a twelve round decision over division veteran Arthur Abraham.
"Right now I'm the champion but when I wanted to take the championship from someone else I trained very hard - and now I have to approach someone else with the same mentality. I have to train very hard to keep the title and be champion for a while," Ramirez said to ESPN Deportes.
Ramirez is very tall, even for 168-pounds. He would do well at the light heavyweight limit - but he wants to continue winning titles at 168 before making the jump to 175-pounds.
"We are focused on defending my title in the fight, our preparation. I want to fight the best and reign at 168 pounds. I want to clean up the division and establish myself as the best 168 pounds. First of all I want to defend my title many times, until the body and God will allow me to do so and then I will jump up. I will not underestimate anyone," Ramirez said.
His coach Hector Zapari said the current camp is going very well.
"Britsch has a slightly different style to Abraham, and we are working on it. He is a fighter who comes in and moves a little. We are working on coming in and cover the exits. The good thing is that Ramirez is versatile, adaptable, can box, has good footwork, works the middle and at long distance, and depending on the style that is, specific work is done."
