Gilberto Ramirez Wants The Biggest Fights Possible in 2017

By Miguel Rivera

According to Jesus Zapari, who co-promotes WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez (34-0, 24 KOs) with Top Rank, he is expecting the toughest fights and biggest rewards for his boxer in 2017.

Ramirez has been out of the ring since last April, when he captured the WBO world title from veteran Arthur Abraham of Germany.

He was scheduled to make the first defense of his belt against Dominik Britsch as part of the July pay-per-view which featured Terence Crawford vs. Viktor Postol - but Ramirez suffered a bad hand injury in training, underwent surgery and that ruled him out for the rest of the year.

While nothing has been finalized, a date in April is the current target for Ramirez's next fight.

"We have not confirmed anything but it seems that in April he will return. He is already training as if he was scheduled to fight. The injured hand is doing very good, he is running, and doing normal training. We expect Top Rank to make the fights we want," Zapari said to ESPN Deportes.

One of his targets is James DeGale, who holds the International Boxing Federation super middleweight title and also Tyson Zeuge, who holds the "regular" World Boxing Association world title. The World Boxing Council championship became vacant after Badou Jack announced he was moving up to 175-pounds.

"'Ramirez is ready for whatever. He is hitting harder than ever. We have seen the level of fights and in that division and there is no one who [can beat him]. We want the best. The good thing is that he is healthy, motivated, and wants nothing more than to get a date to start training in Los Angeles. For now he is here in Mazatlan and will be training. Whoever comes, he is ready for whatever," said Zapari.