Gilberto Ramirez To Get Hand Evaluated, Aims For Fall Defense

By Miguel Rivera

WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto 'Zurdo' Ramirez (34-0, 24KOs) is having his right hand evaluated to determine when he can work with it again. He had the hand operated on a few weeks ago.

The injury removed him from a planned co-featured position on the Terence Crawford vs. Viktor Postol HBO Pay-Per-View undercard on July 23rd from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Ramirez captured the title in April, with a dominating performance over longtime world champion Arthur Abraham.

In a brief chat with ESPN Deportes, Jesus Zapari, who is the co-promoter of Ramirez, said his Ramirez is already on US soil, as they have an appointment with a specialist to see how the injury is healed and get a forecast on when he can return to training.

"We've come with faith, hoping that everything goes as planned. We've done everything under the protocol created by the doctors, so hopefully that will give us a good prognosis to know what we can do in the future," said Zapari.

Gilberto was operated on by Dr. Steve Shin on July 8. He had a cast for a few days and then was required to wear a splint. Ramirez had a fracture in the middle knuckle of his right hand. The champion and his team are hoping that he can make his first defense in November.

While he is currently in the United States, he might have a meeting with promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank to map out his immediate future. There is some talk of a fight in 2017 with middleweight king Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin, who wants to face Ramirez for his title at 168-pounds.