By Steve Kim
Two of Top Rank's bright young champions are WBO featherweight titlist Oscar Valdez (21-0, 19KOs) and WBO super middleweight belt-holder Gilberto Ramirez (34-0, 24KOs).
Their mutual promoter, Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, is bullish on their futures and has begun the process of mapping out their 2017 campaigns.
"Oscar Valdez and Gilberto Ramirez, we hope to pair them in a double-header in March,"Arum told BoxingScene.com.
A couple of weeks ago he talked of putting them on a pay-per-view show with some of their other champions but according to the veteran promoter:
"I don't know if it would be on the pay-per-view show, which is a possibility because we want them to fight but it looks now like there's a possibility it might be on HBO.
"So obviously if we could do it without charging the people extra on a pay-per-view that's our first preference. But if not, the guys gotta fight. So that's where we stand."
So where would this potential card land? Arum had talked of staging a show in Arizona (where Valdez has roots).
"We don't know if it'll be Tuscon or perhaps in Mexico," he explained. "There's a lot of interest in Mexico for that show."
Ramirez has been out of the ring since April, when he captured the WBO title with a career-defining decision over division veteran Arthur Abraham on the Manny Pacquiao-Tim Bradley PPV undercard. He was going to return in July as part of the Crawford-Postol PPV undercard, but suffered a bad hand injury in training.
Valdez saw action last month on the Pacquiao-Vargas PPV undercard and crushed Hiroshige Osawa of Japan in seven rounds.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.
