Gilberto Ramirez's Path To Title Discussed By Gibbons

By Steve Kim

On the night of January 24th, young super middleweight contender Gilberto 'Zurdo' Ramirez defeated Maxim Vlasov to put his record at 31-0(24 KO's). So what's in the immediate future for this tall, lanky southpaw from Sinaloa, Mexico?

Sean Gibbons of Zapari Promotions, who works closely with Ramirez told Boxingscene.com that his return to the ring will take place - "Sometime in the month of May. Our goal right now is one or two more fights, get him a little more experience and we're just waiting for the WBO to shake out between ( Arthur) Abraham, (Paul) Smith and (Robert) Stieglitz, the winners of those fights - then Ramirez becomes the mandatory."

Abraham and Smith fought in late September (with Abraham coming out with a victory where the cards were wider than what most observers felt was fair). Their return bout is scheduled for February 21st at the O2 World Arena in Berlin, Germany. Abraham had won this WBO belt last March by edging Stieglitz in a split decision.

"If Abraham beats Smith, then he's obligated to rematch with Stieglitz and whoever wins that fight is obligatd to fight Ramirez," explained Gibbons, who admits that Ramirez's last outing was more workmanlike than spectacular.

"I wasn't overly happy on a couple things. I'd like to see a little better development on some things but he was a little sluggish but at the end of the day, I thought the guy fought a real fight, more than (Julio Cesar) Chavez Jr. and 'Canelo' (Saul Alvarez) at this period when they were getting matched,"stated Gibbons."To fight a 6'3 guy, that's not a real easy style to master. I thought he did alright."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.