Two former world champions coming off losses and long layoffs have agreed to fight each other next.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that Gilberto Ramirez and Joe Smith Jr. will meet October 7 in Las Vegas. DAZN will stream their cruiserweight bout from The Chelsea, a cozy venue inside The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
The deal for Ramirez-Smith isn’t finalized in part because the two sides have yet to settle on a catch weight somewhere below the cruiserweight limit of 200 pounds. That detail is not expected to hold up their deal, however, because both Ramirez and Smith are on board with a contract weight somewhere in the 190s.
The bout between Ramirez, 32, and Smith, 33, was first mentioned in a Tweet by Big Fight Weekend’s Dan Rafael.
Mexico’s Ramirez (44-1, 30 KOs), who is represented by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, will fight for the first time since Dmitry Bivol beat him in their 12-round fight for Bivol’s WBA light heavyweight title last November 5 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Russia’s Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) thoroughly outboxed Ramirez and won by scores of 118-110, 117-111 and 117-111.
Ramirez, a former WBO super middleweight champ, was supposed to return to the ring March 18 against Gabriel Rosado at Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California. Their scheduled 12-round, 175-pound main event was scrapped the day they were supposed to weigh in, though, because Ramirez was grossly overweight, reportedly more than seven pounds above their contracted limit.
Smith, meanwhile, will fight for the first time since Russian knockout artist Artur Beterbiev stopped him in the second round of their light heavyweight title unification fight 14 months ago in New York. The Montreal-based Beterbiev overwhelmed Smith with his vaunted power, dropped him three times and stopped Smith while he was still standing at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater.
Beterbiev (18-0, 18 KOs) retained his IBF and WBC 175-pound championships that night and took the WBO light heavyweight title from Smith (28-4, 22 KOs). Smith – a Mastic, New York native promoted by Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing – had won four fights in a row before Beterbiev beat him.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.