Ramos Not Impressed With Rigondeaux, Wants Donaire

By Luis Sandoval

WBA Super Bantamweight champion Rico Ramos is preparing to face the interim champion Guillermo Rigondeaux on December 31st on Showtime’s last broadcast of the calendar year.
Ramos recently spoke to BoxingScene.com’s The Boxing Lab to discuss his thoughts on the upcoming fight. While he feels Rigondeaux is a good fighter, he also isn’t as impressed with the undefeated Cuban.

“Rigondeaux is a very strong, smart fighter. I take nothing away from him, he really likes to counterpunch” explained Ramos. “But his [second to] last fight with Cordoba, to me honestly, exposed him. I mean he was just on him every round and Rigondeaux fell off a little bit”.

Rigondeaux was not only dropped in the Cordoba fight, but most felt he played keep away for the second half of the fight in a less than stellar performance. The undefeated Cuban, who has only had a total of 8 professional fights, is considered one of the best amateurs winning two gold medals and was a seven time Cuban National Champion.

While his pedigree is impressive, it doesn’t in anyway effect or intimidate Ramos who still feels Rigondeaux style remains that of an amateur.

“I’m not threatened at all. To me, he still has that amateur style. To me he still has that get the points and run away or move away [style]”.

The fight is taking place at the Honda Center in Anaheim which is just a stone throw away from where Ramos resides. Having the fight in his backyard is definitely something he’s excited about.

“It feels good. There’s going to be a lot of people there for me and that motivates me to work even harder. I mean just seeing my family and friends there, it’s a good feeling” said Ramos.

Ramos is going into to this fight very confident. He’s so confident in fact he is already calling out his next opponent.

“When Donaire comes to [122], we want him next”.

First Ramos must defeat his opponent on New Year’s Eve.

You can follow Luis Sandoval on Twitter @truewest007. You can also tune in to BoxingScene’s official audio show The Boxing Lab every Tuesday from 6-8PM PST with hosts Ernest Gabion, Luis Sandoval, and Ryan Burton.