Trainer Robert Garcia has not seen a more-motivated and hungrier version of Jose Ramirez until the lead up to Saturday’s clash against Josh Taylor.
In other words, if Ramirez fights to his potential, Taylor is in for a long night.
Ramirez will square off against Taylor in a world junior welterweight title unification fight at the Virgins Hotel Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 12-round bout will headline a three-bout ESPN telecast (8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT).
At Friday’s weigh-in, both fighters weighed in at 139.6 pounds.
Ramirez will put up his WBC and WBO world title belts, while Taylor will attempt to defend his IBF and WBA world title belts. The winner will be the undisputed champion.
With so much on the line, Ramirez (26-0, 17 knockouts) has thrown himself to training early and often in the lead up to Saturday night. Ramirez has been trained by Robert Garcia, over the last several months. Garcia has a reputation of being a great teacher, but has a large stable of world titleholders and contenders like Vergil Ortiz, Jr., who have sparred against Ramirez.
Garcia was pleased to see not only the amount of work and dedication Ramirez put into training camp for the Taylor fight, but the commitment and improvement Ramirez had during this time period was impressive.
“Jose had a great camp,” Garcia told BoxingScene late Thursday night. “He definitely is more-relaxed, especially now that he’ll have family, including his newborn, with him. The fight will be very close, but I really believe Jose will win by knockout during the last two or three rounds.”
Garcia understands what Ramirez is going through as he also is a former world titleholder, once owning the IBF title belt during the mid-1990’s. While Garcia may not have had a world unification title fight, he understands what is on the line, including the future legacy for the winner, but much more for Ramirez.
“This (a win over Taylor) can be my biggest win as a trainer,” said Garcia. “To (potentially) have the first Mexican-American ever to become undisputed is a big deal. I am very confident. We (father Eduardo and Robert) feel very confident about the win.”
Ramirez won the vacant WBC world junior welterweight title with a decision win over Amir Imam in March 2018. He would add the WBO title by stopping Maurice Hooker in round 6 in July 2019.
In his last bout on August 29, Ramirez defeated Viktor Postol by majority decision over 12 rounds. Garcia attributed his performance to having the fight been postponed twice over the last year and a half due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for BoxingScene since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing.
