It will be a junior welterweight doubleheader on ESPN.
Junior welterweight titleholder Jose Ramirez (23-0, 16 KOs) will return to the ring at home in Fresno, California for a Top Rank on ESPN main event on February 10th. His opponent will be bad luck former title challenger Jose Zepeda (30-1, 25 KOs), also of California, who has made his pro career in Mexico under Zanfer Promotions.
The 29 year old challenger started his career with 23 straight wins and found himself in the UK to battle for a vacant title belt in 2015 against Terry Flanagan. Unfortunately for Zepeda, a shoulder injury struck early in the fight and he was unable to continue in what was technically a TKO loss. Really it was just shit luck though, luck that continued when Jose had his next fight end as a one round no contest thanks to an accidentally headbutt.
Zepeda is 7-0 since then back on the regional Mexican scene. His best win came in a Zanfer prospect showdown against Carlos Ramirez from this summer in what was a very entertaining mid round finish win. That’s not a major win by any means, but the Mexico based challenger passes the eye test as a pretty solid pro fighter.
26 year old Top Rank darling Jose Ramirez first jumped off the page in late 2017 with an at the time much easier than expected two round thrashing of unbeaten Mike Reed. He followed it up with a strong showing in a vacant title win over Amir Imam and recently picked up an extremely solid, mostly wide win over top contender Antonio Orozco in his first defense. The California native is a fan friendly, action first fighter who is on a really underrated run. Jose Zepeda marks yet another solid opponent for the titleholder.
Recent former lightweight titleholder Ray Beltran (35-8-1, 21 KOs) will get the co-main event slot. The aging 37 year old will be moving up five pounds to test the waters at junior welterweight for the contest against Japanese unbeaten prospect Hiroki Okada (19-0, 13 KOs). Beltran is coming off getting dropped late and losing his belt to Jose Pedraza while Okada’s stock has fallen significantly following some serious trouble separating himself from a journeyman in his American debut. The winner will very much need the momentum here. Promotional politics considered, they will also be in good position to meet the winner of the main event for a title shot whether they deserve it or not.
