By: Sean Crose
On Saturday, WBA lightweight champion Dmitry Bivol will face undefeated former world player Gilberto Ramirez in Abu Dhabi. The DAZN showdown will be the last big game of the year aside from Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez’s upcoming third game against Juan Francisco Estrada next month in Arizona. It’s only fitting that Bivol-Ramirez will be airing in the US on Saturday afternoons, since that’s the exact kind of battle that ever aired on television on weekend afternoons in the glorious ’70s and ’80s.
44-0 Ramirez has been working to fight like this for a while. At one point, he arranged the schedule for HBO. After that pay cable network gave up boxing, Ramirez continued to plug his head into basic outside the limelight, winning the super-middleweight world title along the way. If he wins on Saturday, Ramirez will really move from the sidelines to the center of attention. Undoubtedly, this bout meant a lot to the Golden Boy promoted boxer.
On the other hand, Bivol 20-0 isn’t quite resting on his laurels after shaking the fighting world to its core when he upset challenger Canelo Alvarez last May. . That decisive victory showed the world how good the Russian boxer is currently 20-0. With a potential rematch against Canelo next year, Bivol has all the reasons the world wants to win this weekend. However, he’s against the real thing about Ramirez… that’s what makes this fight so compelling.
The fight between Dmitry Bivol-Gilberto Ramirez is expected to last 12 innings.
