By Miguel Rivera
Gilberto Ramirez's fourth defense of the World Boxing Organization (WBO) super middleweight championship is being locked in for the date of June 30th, according to what ESPN Deportes was told by the boxer's co-promoter Jesus Zapari, who handles the fighter in a partnership with Top Rank.
It's being reported that Ramirez's next fight is potentially going to land in Texas, and British contender Rocky Fielding is a frontrunner being considered for the date.
Fielding is currently ranked in the third position within the WBO standings, and has a record of 26-1 with 14 knockouts and his only loss was against unbeaten Callum Smith in November 2015.
As part of the development of Ramírez, who is openly calling for a crack at the winner of the World Boxing Super Series super middleweight tournament - which is going to have an all-British final between George Groves or Callum Smith , the Mexican fighter's team are looking for a British opponent in order to make himself more known in the United Kingdom.
Finally, it is known that one of the locations that Top Rank was pursuing for the second fight of 'Zurdo' (37-0, 25 KOs) in 2018 - after defeating the Ghanaian Habib Ahmed in Corpus Christi, Texas - is an arena in McAllen.
Ramírez has made three successful defenses of the WBO world title at 168 pounds that he wrested from longtime division veteran Arthur Abraham of Germany in April of 2016. His victims so far have been Max Bursak, Jesse Hart in a fight that was mandated by the WBO, and Ahmed.
In the next few days, 'Zurdo' Ramírez and his team, led by coach Héctor Zápari, will wait to define the exact location of the fight, and the opponent, so they can start the specific work for the contest - although he has been working for several weeks in Sinaloa as part of the physical conditioning.