Jose Ramirez

Bio

Jose Ramirez is one of the most honest fighters of his generation. The Jaguar came out of Avenal, California, went to the Olympics, and then did the thing almost nobody does any more — he unified at 140lb, holding the WBC and WBO light-welterweight belts at the same time. He got there by walking people down, taking two to give three, and refusing to be the one who blinked first.

At 29-3 with 18 knockouts, the losses tell you as much as the wins. He lost to Josh Taylor in a unification that was a proper Fight of the Year contender, and he dropped a twelve-round decision to Devin Haney in a fight where the better boxer simply had more answers. Neither defeat came against a soft touch. He has never once picked an easy night.

Make no mistake though, the style has a bill attached. Pressure fighters age in dog years, and Ramirez has been in a lot of hard rounds. The move up to welterweight takes away the brutal 140lb cut, which helps, but it puts him in with naturally bigger men at the stage of his career when margins are thinnest.

He also carries something most fighters do not. Ramirez has spent years campaigning on water rights and farmworker issues in California's Central Valley, and he has never treated it as a publicity exercise. Class, in and out of the ring.

He faces Alexis Rocha over ten rounds at welterweight in Las Vegas on the Garcia-Benn card — a genuine crossroads fight buried on the preliminaries where it has no business being.