By Allan Fox: Oscar De La Hoya is furious that Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez won’t get the opportunity to face Canelo Alvarez in a lucrative fight if he dethrones WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol on Saturday night in their main event bout live on DAZN at the Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
De La Hoya says Canelo’s recent remark about him not fighting Mexican fighters is just a “cop-out” on his part. In other words, Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) is using that as an excuse to avoid Ramirez (44-0, 30 KOs), as well as David Benavidez, two fighters that would give him a lot of problems with their size.
It probably burns De La Hoya up inside that Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) has a chance to fight Canelo in a rematch if he wins tonight, but he seemingly doesn’t care.
Earlier this week, Bivol said that he prefers to face IBF/WBC/WBO light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev for the undisputed championship rather than go over old ground by fighting Canelo again.
As a result, Bivol may choose to turn down the Canelo fight for next May if the opportunity is there for him to face the unbeaten Beterbiev (18-0, 18 KOs) with all four belts at 175 being on the line.
It’s obviously still too early to know if Bivol will have the chance to fight Beterbiev because his promoter Bob Arum hasn’t seemed eager in the past to make a fight between them. If Arum chooses not to give Beterbiev the green light for the undisputed clash, Bivol could potentially face Canelo, seeing that would be his best option for a big fight.
“You would have to ask that to Canelo,” said Oscar De La Hoya to DAZN Boxing when asked if Zurdo Ramirez could fight Canelo next if he comes out victorious against Bivol. “From the rumblings, I’ve heard in the past about Canelo not fighting Mexicans, to me, it’s just a cop-out.”
If you’re Canelo, it’s understandable why you wouldn’t want to fight the 6’4″, 200+ lbs Zurdo Ramirez because the size difference between them is just too much.
It would be like asking Ramirez to take on heavyweights Deontay Wilder or Oleksandr Usyk. it wouldn’t be a fair fight in either case.
“It doesn’t make sense. I think the winner on Saturday night will continue fighting the very best and will challenge the very best, and I want to point out that Ramirez wasn’t handed this position. He had to work for it,” said De La Hoya.
If you take a good look at Ramirez’s weak resume at 175, you can argue that he was handed the WBA mandatory position without fighting anyone of real talent since mining up to light heavyweight in 2019.
Judge for yourself. This is Ramirez’s opposition since moving up to 175:
- Sullivan Barrera – 39
- Yunieski Gonzalez
- Tommy Karpency
- Alfonso Lopez
- Dominic Boesel
You could argue that Ramirez would have earned his title shot against Bivol if he’d beaten these fighters:
- Joshua Buatsi
- Joe Smith Jr
- Callum Smith
- Craig Richards
“We had to position him with the WBA,” said De La Hoya about Ramirez. “He had to fight two eliminators. He took the long road, the hard road. Therefore, I believe that his heart is in the right place, his mind is in the right place, and we’re going to see a great performance from both guys,” said De La Hoya.
