Gilberto Ramirez, Joe Smith fighting to stay in title hunt

FIGHT WEEK

Light heavyweight contenders Gilberto Ramirez and Joe Smith Jr. are scheduled to meet in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, in England, Leigh Wood will defend his 126-pound title against Josh Warrington.

LEIGH WOOD (27-3, 16 KOs) VS.
JOSH WARRINGTON (31-2-1, 8 KOs)

• Date: Saturday, Oct. 7
• Time: 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT (main event later in show)
• Where: Sheffield Arena, Sheffield, England
• TV/Stream: DAZN
• Division: Featherweight (126 pounds)
• At stake: Wood’s WBA title
• Odds: Wood 2½-1 favorite (average of multiple outlets)
• Pound-for-pound: None
• Also on the card: Terri Harper vs. Cecilia Braekhus, junior middleweights (for Harper’s WBA and vacant WBO titles); Kieron Conway vs. Linus Udofia, middleweights; Hopey Price vs. Connor Coghill, featherweights
• Prediction: Wood UD
• Background: Wood will be fighting to stay on top, Warrington to get back there in this compelling All-Briton matchup. Wood, a 35-year-old from Nottingham, is a two-time 126-pound titleholder. He bounced back from a devasting seventh-round knockout against Mauricio Lara in February to easily outpoint the Mexican and regain the belt he lost in the first fight. The first meeting with Lara followed one of the most-thrilling battles in years, in which Wood knocked Michael Conlan out of the ring in the final round to win by knockout a fight he had been losing. Warrington, a 32-year-old from Leeds, also is a two-time featherweight champ. He battled back from a knockout loss and draw with Lara to take Kiko Martinez’s belt by knockout in March of last year but lost it to Luis Alberto Lopez by majority decision in his most recent fight, in December. He’s 1-2-1 in his last four fights.

GILBERTO RAMIREZ (44-1, 30 KOs)
VS. JOE SMITH JR. (28-4, 22 KOs)

• Date: Saturday, Oct. 7
• Time: 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT (main event later in show)
• Where: The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas
• TV/Stream: DAZN
• Division: Light heavyweight (175 pounds)
• At stake: No major titles
• Odds: NA
• Pound-for-pound: None
• Also on the card: John Ramirez vs. Ronal Batista, junior bantamweights; Bektemir Melikuziev vs. Alantez Fox, super middleweights

• Prediction: Ramirez UD
• Background: Ramirez and Smith will both be trying to bounce back from damaging losses. Ramirez, a former 168-pound titleholder, won five consecutive fights after moving up to 175 but met his match in gifted champion Dmitry Bivol, who handed the 32-year-old Mexican his first professional defeat by a one-sided unanimous decision last November. Smith, a limited technician with immense power, won a light heavyweight title by outpointing Jesse Hart in 2020 and successfully defended three times. Then he ran into a monster in Artur Beterbiev, who needed less than two full rounds to knock out Smith in a title-unification bout on June 18. The winner on Saturday will take a significant step toward a shot at another belt. The loser, particularly if he loses badly, could be in for an uphill battle to remain a major player in the division.

ALSO FIGHTING THIS WEEK

WEDNESDAY

• Pablo Cesar Cano vs. Zachary Ochoa, junior welterweights, Plant City, Florida (ProBox TV)

SATURDAY

• Evelin Nazarena Bermudez vs. Kim Clavel, junior flyweights (for Bermudez’s IBF and WBO titles), Laval, Quebec (No TV in U.S.)
• Daniel Valladares vs. Ginjiro Shigeoka, strawweights (for Valladares’ IBF title), Tokyo (No TV in U.S.)