Robeisy Ramirez wants Saturday’s fight with Brandon Leon Benitez to lead to a rematch with Rafael Espinoza.
Cuba’s Ramirez, 30, sacrificed the WBO featherweight title when in December he unexpectedly lost via majority decision to Espinoza in what represented one of the best fights of 2023.
He has since seen Mexico’s Espinoza not only make the first defense of that same title, against Sergio Chirino Sanchez earlier in June, but come to be considered a likely future opponent for the great Naoya Inoue.
Ramirez fights another Mexican in the 26-year-old Benitez at the James L. Knight Center in Miami Beach, but he does so having heard Espinoza give “his word” that they would have an immediate rematch.
He will perhaps never truly be at peace until he avenges that defeat in the same way he once did that inflicted by Adan Gonzales – and not least because he is aware of where victory in a similarly entertaining rematch could lead.
“That’s what [Espinoza] said in the ring,” Ramirez said. “We accepted his word for it. I understand that he has a team behind him that might tell him otherwise, but we were expecting the rematch – the immediate rematch – because that’s what he said in the ring.
“I suppose what happened was that his team advised him to do other fights before. At the end of the day it’s a business, and I suppose that his team advised him that way. Of course I want the rematch – I’m looking to fight the best, and whatever happens in this fight, he has a title. I’m coming for him.
“It’s not really frustration. That’s part of the destiny. It was the way it was meant to happen. So I don’t really feel frustrated or pay attention to that. Let’s see what happens in this fight – we’re gonna have a rematch. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself. I don’t want to think of what’s going to happen at the end of the year when the year’s just beginning for me.
“Me and Naoya would be a great fight. I would be a tougher opponent for him [than Espinoza]. Espinoza is a Mexican fighter – you know how Mexican fighters fight. They come to go toe-to-toe; they come ready for a war. Against a fighter like Inoue, it’s going to be a tough fight for him. I believe that me and Naoya, being technicians with power – that would propose a better fight.”
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