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The last thing Jose Carlos Ramirez wanted to hear was anything COVID-related resulting in a third postponement of his mandatory title defense.
The unbeaten and unified junior welterweight titlist has literally waited all year for a fight to materialize with Ukraine’s Viktor Postol, with the two finally set to square off this weekend live on ESPN+ from The Bubble in Las Vegas. Their third try at meeting for a first time is closer than it has ever been to seeing the light of day, even with the brief scare over the possibility of Ramirez coming in one team member light.
Renowned trainer Robert Garcia was disallowed to work the corner of bantamweight prospect Robert ‘Biggie’ Rodriguez this past weekend in Las Vegas after producing a positive coronavirus test. Garcia has since twice tested negative for the infectious disease—a similar process to when he was forced to miss out on unbeaten welterweight Vergil Ortiz Jr’s latest win this past July in Indio, California—and will more than likely be on hand for Saturday’s title fight headliner.
“I heard about the first test, but he’s taken a few tests since then and they have all come out negative,” Ramirez (25-0, 17KOs) told BoxingScene.com on Monday. “He should be in my corner this weekend.”
Ramirez and Postol (31-2, 12KOs) were first due to collide on February 1 at Mission Hills Resort Haikou in Haikou, China. Their bout was the first major boxing event to be postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus, still new enough at the time to where it was initially reported as the ‘Wuhan Virus,’ given its origins in Wuhan, China.
Postol and several members of his team were already in country when the decision was made to cancel the event on January 23. The former 140-pound titlist was able to make it back safely and without any health issues, immediately returning to training for a hoped-for new fight date.
Top Rank sought to reschedule the event for May 9 at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California, where Ramirez—who hails from nearby Avenal—has long ago emerged as a massive box office attraction. Such plans were wiped out along with the rest of the spring schedule, this time coming roughly five weeks into Ramirez’s second training camp for his first fight since a 6th round knockout of unbeaten Maurice Hooker in their title unification clash last July in Arlington, Texas.
Ramirez and Postol have both wrapped up training camp and—for the first time in three tries—have now made it to fight week with the event still scheduled. While the reigning champion remains cautiously optimistic of finally stepping foot in the ring for the first time in 2020, it all still carries a ‘been-here-before’ feeling that won’t go away until everyone is officially medically cleared.
“We just want to get there Wednesday night, Thursday morning for everyone to get tested,” notes Ramirez, who attempts the fourth title defense of at least one belt dating back to his March 2018 title win over Amir Imam. “We want to make sure we get the results that both teams are good to go, and that we can finally say the fight is here.
“I just want to be able to breathe that sigh of relief now that the fight is so close.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox