WBA/WBO Cruiserweight Champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez (47-1, 30 KOs) has been booked by the WBA to defend against mandatory Juniel Dorticos (27-2, 25 KOs) in his next bout.
Cuban-born Dortikos, 38, has fought just three times in the past four years, defeating obscure, low-level opposition to earn a mandatory spot in the World Boxing Federation. It’s not ideal for a fighter to win the No. 1 spot, but there’s no shortage of talent in the cruiserweight division. Dortikos is one of the few good fighters in this weight class, and he is not young.
Unification postponed
Ramirez plans to fight unification against the IBF cruiserweight champion Yai Opetaia it must be put on hold. He’ll have to wait until he gets this fight against Dorticos out of the way. Of course, there is always the possibility of a deviation if Ramirez’s promoters at Golden Boy want to go that route.
It’s a shame the IBF didn’t use former WBA champion Arsen Gulamirian as a mandatory, but that wouldn’t have made sense either, considering Ramirez defeated him last year on March 30 via a one-sided 12-round decision. Still, it would be infinitely better than fighting an inactive Dortic.
