Top Rank on ESPN delivers yet another compelling main event tomorrow night when unbeaten and fast rising contender Jose Ramirez meets once beaten Amir Imam for the vacant WBC junior welterweight title. Exciting Ukrainian light heavyweight contender Oleksandr Gvozdyk will also be in action alongside popular Irish lightweight prospect Michael Conlan.
When Terence Crawford left the junior welterweight division after unifying all four titles, he left behind a division completely devoid of titleholders. I cannot remember this happening in recent boxing history, but it is the reality we briefly lived in. In its own weird way, this has really brought the division to life too thanks to the series of exciting matchups the voids have created. The WBA has crowned Kiryl Relikh while the IBF belt has found its way to Mikey Garcia.
After Saturday night, the WBC belt will have found a home as well. Amir Imam (21-1, 18 KOs) has the most to lose here in my opinion. The 27 year old Albany, New York based fighter was once considered one of the best prospects in the sport. He picked up a few really nice wins relative to his status as a prospect to back it up too. Fidel Maldonado Jr may not be a world title contender, but he is an outstanding win for a fifteen fight pro. Even better now was Imam’s one sided win over current welterweight contender Yordenis Ugas. The Cuban has emerged as a potential dark horse title threat in the division, but he wasn’t a threat to Amir Imam.
All of this came crashing down in November of 2015, however. That night in Montreal, on the undercard of James DeGale’s exciting defeat of Lucian Bute, Amir Imam fell to Adrian Granados. After a solid first round in which Imam put his foe on the canvas, Granados rallied with his high volume style and Amir fell into the trap. By the eighth round the once promising prospect was exhausted and being beaten down. The fight was rightfully waved off. With the win Adrian Granados went from a gatekeeper who gives top prospects really hard fights to a contender while Amir Imam disappeared in devastating defeat.
Amir Imam is 3-0 with three finishes since that loss, but the potential final Don King product hasn’t stepped back up against any sort of level that could test him. Jose Ramirez (21-0, 16 KOs) certainly can and will though. The Californian has a pretty sizable following back at home, but this will be his potential breakout moment nationwide when he steps into the ring to compete for the vacant WBC junior welterweight title.
Jose Ramirez was a member of the 2012 US Olympic team, winning his first round matchup before falling in the second round to eventual Olympic gold medalist and current Top Rank stablemate Fazliddin Gaibnazarov. He turned professional with Top Rank and came up their usual slow burn route while fighting on really big cards. His pro debut, for example, took place on the same show where Juan Manuel Marquez finally got his win over Manny Pacquiao with that now legendary one punch knockout.
Top Rank has historically been notorious for bringing their fighters up slowly. While Ramirez was far from the worst case, he was no real exception either. While his opponent Amir Imam was fighting good fighters as early as in his thirteenth pro fight, Ramirez was still only fighting journeymen right up until his most recent fight in November.
That night Jose finally stepped up then against fellow unbeaten Top Rank prospect Mike Reed. I thought this was an interesting matchup between two men with contrasting styles. Could Reed use his slickness or would Ramirez’s offense carry the day? Forget that. Instead, it was a coming out party as Saturday’s title hopeful walked right through Mike Reed like he wasn’t there at all. The fight was over inside two rounds.
What we have here is an intriguing fight between two fighters that clearly have talent but also come with question marks. I don’t think anyone can dispute that Amir Imam can really fight, but he was definitely caught off guard by Adrian Granados and hasn’t fought another threat in two and a half years. What happens when Jose Ramirez starts hitting him? Jose Ramirez has one real good looking and dominant win over Mike Reed, but are we over hyping that? Reed lost again just last week and didn’t really have any notable wins of his own.
Best of all, both of these men are offense first fighters. On paper this an entertaining and evenly matched contest within the sport of boxing. It will also give the winner their first world title, not to mention a hell of a mandatory challenger. The WBC has made it very clear that the winner must fight rising divisional star Regis Prograis next if they want to keep their newly won title. Regardless of which man wins Saturday night, sign me up for that. I am leaning Jose Ramirez, by the way, as I just think he is in the better mental place and also has the slightly more crisp offense. It is a close one to call though.
In the co-main event, a secondary WBC light heavyweight title will be on the line when Ukrainain contender Oleksandr Gvozdyk (14-0, 12 KOs) meets Mehdi Amar (34-5-2, 16 KOs) of France. This is a mismatch. Gvozdyk is ultra talented and one of the better emerging contenders in the sport. He has excellent ring craft, athleticism, and some real power. Amar is a regional level fighter who would probably fail at Euro-level, let alone the world level that Oleksandr Gvozdyk represents. This would should be finished early.
Strangely, it should be noted that the main event will not be the final fight broadcast on this card. That honor will instead go to Irish prospect Michael Conlan (5-0, 4 KOs) when he meets Hungary’s David Berna (15-2, 14 KOs). Even though this is weird, it does make a sort of practical sense. Jose Ramirez is a big draw in California, but he isn’t going to draw a crowd to the MSG Theater. Amir Imam is local, but Don King hasn’t really bothered to promote his fighters in years and no one really knows who he is outside of boxing nerds like us. Michael Conlan, on the other hand, is an immensely popular Irish prospect and the Irish are well represented in the United State’s northeast. Michael Conlan is expected to draw the crowd. Should his fight open the card like it would in a traditional lineup, there would be a concern that too much of the crowd will file out afterward and leave the arena prior to the main event. This non-traditional lineup solves that concern.
Thankfully, this show begins early on ESPN at 8 PM Eastern time. The preliminary card will be available at WatchESPN.com beginning at 5:30 PM. It features some good and notable fighters too in Felix Verdejo, Jose Pedraza, and Christopher Diaz. You can also continue watching the main card on the site or app too if that is more convenient than switching to the linear ESPN channel.
