Unfortunately for Kevin Ramirez, there is no cruiserweight bracket in the WBC Grand Prix.
Ramirez, a 25-year-old Argentinean, has been fighting at cruiser his whole career, often weighing in multiple pounds shy of the 200lbs limit. To fight in the Grand Prix, he had to "step up" to heavyweight – but that didn’t mean he was going to put on any weight.
In the first round, Ramirez came in at 200¼lbs and knocked out the 244.25lbs Brian Zwart inside a round. His next match was trickier – Reagan Apanu put up more resistance, even if he weighed “just” 240.75lbs. Ramirez also had a fever going into the fight, which compromised his preparation and performance. Still, he managed to score a fourth-round knockdown en route to a comfortable unanimous decision win.
“I’m not gonna lie, you can feel the weight difference. You feel it a lot,” Ramirez told BoxingScene through a translator. “But at the same time, I’m not gonna run away from any challenge. It’s something that I welcome.”
Argentinean boxers typically operate at lighter weights, so Ramirez doesn’t have many countrymen to directly influence his path. But he admires Marcos Maidana’s fearless, reckless style, and likes Puma Martinez and Brian Castaño among active fighters.
Does reigning heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, once a cruiserweight, provide any inspiration? “Usyk inspires and motivates me a lot,” Ramirez said. “What he’s doing against great opponents as the great fighter that he is, it’s something that really pumps me up and motivates me when I see him out there. I give a lot of props for what he does. But in my case, with the weight, I can’t carry it comfortably. The weight at heavyweight, it’s just too much. It’s more comfortable for me at cruiserweight.”
You heard him, WBC – we’ll be expecting a new division if there’s a next edition of the Grand Prix. After the tournament, Ramirez plans to return to cruiserweight and fight at around 198lbs, rather than 207lbs, where he will top out in this tournament. Still, the heavier guys don’t intimidate him.
“Fear?” he said. “Never.”
Next up is Poland’s 27-year-old Piotr Lacz, 14-0 (10 KOs), in the quarterfinals on August 13. He is both older and more accomplished than Ramirez’s previous opponents – and, once again, sure to be bigger than the Argentinean cruiserweight.
“We have been studying him, with my coach,” Ramirez said of Lacz. “We know what he’s like; he’s a strong fighter. But I always like to say, it’s not always the strongest fighter that wins the fight but the smartest one that comes out on top. So I’m gonna go out there and do my thing, and prevail with the weapons that I’m working on right now.”
As for so many fighters, boxing isn’t Ramirez’s whole life. He has another job sweeping the streets in Buenos Aires and collecting trash. His biggest ambition, though, is to win a world title.
“I come from a humble background, from a working family,” Ramirez said. “We have always had to grind for whatever we had. Like they say: ‘Started from the bottom, now we’re here.’ I’m proud of the heights we’ve achieved, and we’re working towards achieving even greater heights.”
Ramirez will be aiming high in a couple days, once again trying to beat size with smarts.
Owen Lewis is a freelance writer with bylines at Defector Media, The Guardian and The Second Serve. He is also a writer and editor at BoxingScene. His beats are tennis, boxing, cycling, books, travel and anything else that satisfies his meager attention span. He is on Bluesky and can be contacted at owentennis11@gmail.com.