WBC and WBO champion Jose Ramirez and IBF, WBA and Ring Magazine titlist Josh Taylor will fight Saturday night, and the winner will become the undisputed champion at 140 pounds.
The only reason Ramirez and Taylor were able to win the belts in bouts to begin with in recent years was because the last undisputed champion of the division, Terence Crawford, vacated all four belts in 2017 and moved up to welterweight.
Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum is plotting a plan for his 147-pound crownholder Crawford after the weekend concludes, and it could feature the new undisputed champion in a new division.
“The winner of this fight has agreed to give [undefeated WBO super lightweight mandatory challenger Jack] Catterall a shot. Hopefully things clear up in the UK and we can do the fight over there. But we’ll see,” Arum told Boxing Social. “Certainly I have Terence Crawford available to fight the winner of Taylor vs. Ramirez. That would be a tremendous fight. [Crawford] was going to fight [Manny] Pacquiao in Abu Dhabi, but that didn’t come off, So we’re looking around for a big fight for him with spectators sometime in the fall of this year.”
Ramirez and Taylor would both have to move up in weight in order to land the fight with Crawford. All three fighters are signed to Top Rank, so making the fight would be much simpler once the terms are figured out.
Discussions of a potential Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) versus Ramirez (26-0, 17 KOs) fight at 147 have been going on for the last year. Taylor (17-0, 13 KOs), meanwhile, has expressed he’s not long for 140 and plans to move up.
Either fighter could be in store for a big-money fight against the Nebraska native and one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport in Crawford should they ask for it.
“Crush him, it’s that simple,” Crawford said last year in regard to a potential fight with the 28-year-old Fresno native Ramirez. “Whenever he’s ready, I’m going to crush him.”
Ramirez answered back at the time and explained that once he bulked up an additional seven pounds, his power would carry over with him.
“Right now I am a super lightweight but when I decide to make that move to the welterweight division people need to stop and really think that I am going to be putting on extra weight and I am going to be much stronger,” said Ramirez. “You are definitely going to see a much bigger and stronger Jose Ramirez. Don’t compare me and Crawford as the fighter I am right now. Just wait and compare me when I make that move to see how much stronger I get. From there then you can make more valid points. For now I am looking forward to making that move and facing a guy like Crawford.”
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, via email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or on www.ManoukAkopyan.com