WBC/WBO 140 pound champ Jose Ramirez, the man Ring Magazine/IBF/WBA super-lightweight champ Josh Taylor wants next, will likely make his next defence against mandatory challenger Viktor Postol, perhaps in February. ESPN.com reports how the purse bid for the fight, already postponed, has been delayed a second time but will probably not be needed anyway, seeing as how both sides have “a deal in principle.”
The agreement is currently being put to paper and it seems this fight will happen. An interesting fight, if not one than excites anywhere near as much as the thought of a Ramirez-Taylor unification showdown does, Ramirez-Postol would be a fight that would see 27 year old Ramirez, 25-0(17) make the first defence of his two titles (Ramirez, the WBC 140 pound champ since his March 2018 decision win over Amir Imam, added the IBF belt to his collection in his last fight, a July stoppage win over Maurice Hooker).
Postol, much the older man at age 35 and 31-2(12), was WBC 140 pound champ in early October of 2015, beating Lucas Matthysse to take the vacant belt, until July of the following year, when he lost a WBO/WBC unification clash with Terence Crawford. Never stopped, Ukrainian Postol has won two in a row since suffering his second pro defeat, this being a June 2018 decision to Taylor (a fight that was far more evenly fought than the wide score-cards would indicate).
Postol is tall at 5’11” – an inch taller than Ramirez according to BoxRec – and he is both skilled and tough. Can Ramirez go one better than both Crawford and Taylor and actually stop Postol? Ramirez will doubtless be a pretty big favourite to win the fight should it go ahead as is likely, but Postol is no pushover for anyone, in fact he’s far from it.
Ramirez wants the big, big fights, but he must deal with the tricky, rangy and durable Postol first. Josh Taylor – who likely gave us 2019’s Fight of the Year with his win over Regis Prograis this past Saturday – will be watching to see what happens.
