Robeisy Ramirez: Loss In Debut Way In The Past; Ready For World Championship Opportunity

NEW YORK – Robeisy Ramirez has grown weary of questions regarding his stunning loss in his pro debut.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist feels he has proven himself since that split-decision defeat to Adan Gonzales. Ramirez convincingly avenged his close loss to Gonzales in their six-round rematch four fights later and the Cuban southpaw has won nine straight fights since Gonzales dropped and upset him in a four-round fight that took place in August 2019.

“Everybody just keeps asking and talking about the debut,” Ramirez told BoxingScene.com following a press conference Thursday at Madison Square Garden. “I’m way over that. It just precipitated changes that needed to be made in my career. I made those adjustments early on.

“That’s way in the past. I’m just ready for a world championship opportunity and I know fights like this are making me inch closer to that opportunity. So, I’m really excited about the prospects, in terms of what the future holds for me.”

The 28-year-old Ramirez’s immediate future is a 10-round featherweight fight against unbeaten Abraham Nova on the Artur Beterbiev-Joe Smith Jr. undercard Saturday night at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater. The Nova-Ramirez match will open ESPN’s two-bout broadcast at 10 p.m. ET.

Nova (21-0, 15 KOs), of Albany, New York, is rated fourth by the WBO among its contenders in the featherweight division, eight spots above the 12th-ranked Ramirez. If Ramirez (9-1, 5 KOs) can beat Nova, who questioned Ramirez’s level of opposition, the Cienfuegos, Cuba native believes it’ll position him to fight for a featherweight world title later this year.

“He’s good in terms of what it means for positioning in my career,” Ramirez said regarding Nova. “He’s undefeated. He’s from New York. These are all good things. But if you ask me, frankly I think Orlando Gonzalez, who I fought a couple fights back, might have a better skill set. But we’ll see. … I feel like I’m ready for a world championship opportunity or, at the very least, an eliminator that would get us there.”

Ramirez out-boxed Puerto Rico’s Gonzalez (18-1, 11 KOs) in their 10-round fight and won a unanimous decision on the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder undercard October 9 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Caesars Sportsbook has made Ramirez more than a 4-1 favorite to defeat Nova.

Their fight will immediately precede the 12-round, 175-pound title unification battle between the Russian-born, Montreal-based Beterbiev (17-0, 17 KOs) and Smith (28-3, 22 KOs), of Mastic, New York. Beterbiev, 37, and Smith, 32, will fight for Beterbiev’s IBF and WBC light heavyweight titles and Smith’s WBO belt.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.