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Another show has found its way to the already crowded Southern California boxing field on May 14.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez will headline a DAZN show on the date, facing Germany’s Dominic Boesel in a light heavyweight bout to air from the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California. The matchup was revealed during the two most recent DAZN shows, marking Ramirez’s third main event on the sports streaming service.
The winner of the scheduled 12-round fight will become the mandatory challenger for the WBA light heavyweight title at stake in Dmitry Bivol’s title defense versus Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez on May 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Boesel and Ramirez are the two highest ranked contenders in the most recent set of the WBA light heavyweight rankings.
Ramirez (43-0, 29KOs) enjoys his third fight in just more than ten months since joining the Golden Boy Promotions stable last spring. The former WBO super middleweight titlist is 4-0 (4KOs) since moving up to light heavyweight in 2019, with the last two fights taking place as a Golden Boy fighter.
In his most recent start, Ramirez stopped former title challenger Yunieski Gonzalez in the tenth round last December 18 in San Antonio. The win came five months after his prior appearance in the SoCal region, scoring a fourth-round knockout of veteran contender Sullivan Barrera last July 9 at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles.
Boesel (32-2, 12KOs) will make his U.S. debut in what also marks a step up in class. The 32-year-old former interim titlist has fought exclusively in Europe and mostly in his home country of Germany, including a twelve-round, split decision win over Robin Krasniqi in their rematch last October 9 in Magdeburg. The disputed victory saw Boesel avenge a third-round knockout at the hands of Krasniqi just two fights prior.
Already scheduled for that evening are two other shows in the region. Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano meet in an undisputed junior middleweight championship rematch atop a Showtime card from Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. Also that evening, former light heavyweight titlist Sergey Kovalev will face Tervel Pulev in a cruiserweight fight headlining a Triller Pay-Per-View event from The Forum in Inglewood, California.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox