UNBEATEN 175-POUND CONTENDER gilberto RAMIREZ RETURNS TO THE RING AGAINST VETERAN SULLIVAN BARRERA fRIDAY NIGHT ON dazn.
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GILBERTO RAMIREZ (41-0, 27 KOs)
VS. SULLIVAN BARRERA (22-3, 14 KOs)
- Date: Friday, July 9
- Time: 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT
- Where: Banc of California Stadium, Los Angeles
- TV/Stream: DAZN
- Cost: DAZN is $19.99 per month or $99.99 annually
- Division: Light heavyweight (175 pounds)
- Weights (from Friday): Ramirez 174.6, Barrera 174.6
- At stake: No titles
- Pound-for-pound ranking: None
- Odds: NA
- Also on the card: Joseph Diaz Jr. vs. Javier Fortuna, lightweights; Tenkai Tsunami vs. Seniesa Estrada, junior flyweights (for Tsunami’s WBO title); Hector Tanajara Jr. vs. William Zepeda, lightweights
- Prediction: Ramirez KO 10
- Background: Ramirez continues to chase Floyd Mayweather’s 50-0 record and a title shot at light heavyweight against a solid veteran from Cuba. The former 168-pound titleholder will be fighting at 175 pounds for the third time, having stopped Tommy Karpency in April 2019 and Alfonso Lopez this past December. The Mexican’s most-recent fight of this magnitude might’ve been his majority-decision victory over Jesse Hart in December 2018, which was the final defense of his super middleweight title. Ramirez is ranked in the Top 5 in two of the four major sanctioning bodies. Barrera, 39, is a longtime contender with some notable victories, including a decision over Joe Smith Jr. in 2017. However, he has lost most of his biggest fights. He’s 1-2 in his last three outings, a 12th-round knockout in a fight he was losing badly to Dmitry Bivol in 2018 and unanimous decision to Hart in June 2019. The resident of Miami will have been out of the ring for more than two years. The card also features an important fight between Joseph Diaz Jr. (31-1-1, 15 KOs) and Javier Fortuna (36-2-1, 25 KOs). Diaz, who lost his 130-pound title on the scales in his last fight, made a bold decision when he agreed to replace Ryan Garcia as the opponent of the talented Fortuna at 135. Fortuna is unbeaten since he lost a split decision to Robert Easter Jr. in 2018 and one of the leading lightweights. The winner will be in prime position for a shot at a 135-pound title.
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