Arum: Gilberto Ramirez is The Complete Opposite of Chavez Jr.

By Miguel Rivera

Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum has placed a lot of faith in his Mexican super middleweight contender Gilberto 'Zurdo' Ramirez, who on April 9th will get his mandatory shot at WBO world champion Arthur Abraham.

The fight takes place on April 9th in the co-featured bout of the Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley HBO Pay-Per-View at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Arum feels confident that Ramirez (33-0, 24 KO) has the necessary style to upset Abraham (44-4, 29 KOs), who rarely fights outside of Germany. Abraham took the fight to raise his own profile with the bout.

Arum believes the volume punching of Ramirez will see him through.

"It's a tough fight with Abraham because Abraham knows all the tricks, but one of the reasons on why I looked for the fight and why I think that Ramirez will win is because he throws punches like a featherweight , and I have never seen anyone at that weight throw as many punches as he does, and that's going to end up hurting Abraham," said Arum to ESPN Deportes.

Ramirez's Mexican rival at the weight, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., was promoted for most of his career by Arum. The two sides had a very public split in 2014. Chavez left Top Rank and signed with Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions.

During his time with Top Rank, Chavez had issues with weight, training properly and was even arrested for driving under the influence.

"We worked a lot with Chavez Jr. I consider him a friend, his father is a great friend and the biggest Mexican fighter of all time. I disagree with the decision made by Chavez to take his career somewhere else, but Ramirez is the complete opposite of Chavez Jr. - because he is dedicated, disciplined, no bad habits and he will be a big star in boxing for years to come," Arum said.