WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Jose Ramirez (25-0, 17 KOs) has started training for his long-awaited title defense against his WBC mandatory Viktor Postol (31-2, 12 KOs) for mid-July.
We’ll have to keep our fingers crossed that this fight doesn’t get postponed again because it almost seems like it has a jinx on it.
Ramirez’s fight against Postol has already been postponed twice due to the pandemic, and his promoters at Top Rank are hoping that he can finally get this fight over with.
The 36-year-old Postol didn’t have to do much to earn the mandatory position with the World Boxing Council.
He beat Mohamed Mimoune (22-4, 3 KOs) by a 10 round decision in April of last year. Postol lost to Josh Taylor by a 12 round unanimous decision in June of last year.
After that loss, Postol beat little known Siar Ozgul and then Mimoune. Postol is lucky that he fought in a WBC 140-pound title eliminator last year rather than in 2020, as he would have had to face #2 WBC Regis Prograis. That’s a fight that Postol likely would have lost.
“Unified 140-pound champion Jose Ramirez told @SInow that he will begin training camp this week with an eye towards rescheduling a twice-canceled title defense against Viktor Postol in mid-July.
— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) May 19, 2020
Hopefully, the Ramirez vs. Postol fight doesn’t get postponed for a third time. Ramirez wants to move on to bigger and better things with his career by taking on IBF/WBA champion Josh Taylor.
Getting stuck trying to with the Postol obligation for an entire year is such a waste for Ramirez, considering he’s got more appealing fights out there.
These are some of the fights awaiting Ramirez, 27, once he defends against Postol:
- Josh Taylor
- Regis Prograis
- Jack Catterall
- Ivan Baranchyk
- Pablo Cesar Cano
- Jose Zepeda
- Arnold Barboza
“We’re waiting for a date, but we’re hoping it’ll be sometime in July,” said trainer Robert Garcia to Esnews on Ramirez’s title defense against Postol.
Garcia sounds like he’s in the dark about the date for Ramirez’s fight with Postol. According to Mannix, the fight will be taking place in mid-July. It’s still unknown whether the fight will take place, but that’s of less importance than getting the fight done. Ramirez doesn’t need to be still waiting to defend against Postol in 202 because the fight should have happened already.
Ramirez would have gotten the Postol fight out of the way a long time ago if his promoter Bob Arum hadn’t made the mistake of scheduling it for China. It ended up getting postponed because of the pandemic, and it’s now been delayed twice. Some fights just aren’t meant to be.
