Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya told the media today that he heard that heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk is considering moving back down in weight to face the winner of Saturday’s unification clash between WBA cruiserweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (46-1, 30 KOs) and WBO Cruiserweight World Champion Chris Billam-Smith (20-1, 13 KOs).
(Credit: Golden Boy / Cris Esqueda)
Ramirez vs. Billiam-Smith are headlining, live on DAZN in a non-PPV event on Latino Night from The Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The information that De La Hoya told the media about unified heavyweight champion Usyk returning to cruiserweight to fight the winner of the Ramirez-Billiam-Smith fight has already been refuted by Usyk, who said he won’t be moving back down and that he would be staying at heavyweight the remainder of his career.
When De La Hoya announced during today’s press conference that Usyk would be fighting the winner, you could see Billiam-Smith frowning on stage and the announcer Chris Mannix shaking his head as if to say, ‘That’s fake news from De La Hoya.
You can understand De La Hoya wanting to hype the Ramirez vs. Billiam-Smith fight by coming up with the Usyk stuff, because he’s got to do something to hype this fight. There’s been NO interest from fans in the U.S. in that Ramirez-Billiam-Smith fight or the co-feature between Jose Ramirez and Arnold Barboza Jr.
The only fight on the card that fans are interested in is the William Zepeda vs. Tevin Farmer clash. Other than that, there’s some interest in the lightweight clash between Oscar Duarte and Botirzhon Akhmedov.
“I heard through the grapevine that a special world champion in the heavyweight division is considering moving down to cruiserweight and fighting the winner of Saturday’s fight,” said promoter Oscar De La Hoya during Thursday’s final press conference for the Gilberto Ramirez vs. Chris Billiam-Smith card on DAZN.
“So, Oleksandr Usyk is considering coming down and fighting the winner of Saturday night. That’s how special this fight is.”
