Jesus Ramos wasn’t ranked by the WBC after his middleweight bout in February, when he took out former unified junior middleweight titleholder Jeison Rosario in the eighth round. But that’s all changed now that Ramos will be fighting for the WBC’s interim belt at 160lbs.
Ramos, 23-1 (19 KOs), will take on Shane Mosley Jnr, 22-4 (12 KOs), for that secondary title on October 25 on the undercard of Sebastian Fundora vs. Keith Thurman.
Ramos has mostly competed at 154lbs and said he’s not done in that division yet. After the February win over Rosario, he fought again in March, coming in slightly under 156lbs for a seventh-round TKO of Guido Schramm on the undercard of Fundora vs. Chordale Booker.
In the WBC’s latest ratings update, released on September 17, Ramos was inserted at No. 5 at middleweight. He’s now out of the junior middleweight list, where he had been rated third as of last month.
Ramos is now one slot ahead of Mosley, who is at No. 6.
Interestingly, that means the WBC is allowing its fifth- and sixth-rated middleweights to vie for an interim belt even though four men are ranked ahead of them: Meiirim Nursultanov at No. 1, followed by Yoenli Hernandez, Chris Eubank Jnr and Bilal Jkitou.
After Ramos and Mosley come Austin “Ammo” Williams at No. 7, then Etinosa Oliha, Fiodor Czerkaszyn, Troy Isley, Aaron McKenna, Denzel Bentley, Kieron Conway, Marquis Taylor and Bruno Surace.
And of course, the WBC already has a primary titleholder at middleweight: Carlos Adames, last seen fighting to a draw with Hamzah Sheeraz in a February bout that many believed Adames deserved to win.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
