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It’s difficult for Jesus Ramos to feel like he has anything to avenge for his family.
As far as he could determine, Luke Santamaria didn’t do enough to earn the unanimous-decision win that the underdog officially recorded February 5 in Las Vegas. Jesus Ramos believes his uncle, Abel Ramos, defeated Santamaria in their 10-round bout on the Keith Thurman-Mario Barrios undercard at Mandalay Bay Resort Casino’s Michelob ULTRA Arena.
Santamaria recorded an upset because all three judges – Lisa Giampa (98-92), Dave Moretti (96-94) and Patricia Morse Jarman (96-94) – scored their welterweight fight for him. Almost four months later, Santamaria will attempt to upset another member of the Ramos family, this time a 21-year-old, powerful southpaw who produced a more impressive victory than him on the Thurman-Barrios undercard.
Jesus Ramos (18-0, 15 KOs), of Casa Grande, Arizona, and Santamaria (13-2-1, 7 KOs), of Garden Grove, California, will square off Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. On paper, their 10-round junior middleweight match is the most appealing fight on the Gervonta Davis-Rolando Romero undercard.
During a recent open workout in Las Vegas, Jesus Ramos downplayed this fight amounting to him attempting to avenge his uncle’s loss.
“I don’t really pay attention to none of that stuff because I don’t feel like he beat my uncle,” Jesus Ramos told Premier Boxing Champions’ Ray Flores during a recent event held at Mayweather Boxing Club in Las Vegas. “I feel like it was a close fight, but I don’t feel like he beat my uncle. He was hurt two, three times in that fight, and I don’t feel like he did enough to beat him. But, you know, it is what it is, and now I’m gonna have to fight him. And I feel like he’s got kind of a false confidence coming into this fight because he feels like because he beat my uncle, he can beat me. And I don’t feel that way. You know, I don’t feel like that’s gonna help him at all.”
The favored Jesus Ramos hopes to produce a second straight memorable performance against the 24-year-old Santamaria, who has defeated Devon Alexander and Abel Ramos in back-to-back bouts since Paul Kroll soundly defeated him by unanimous decision in a 10-rounder in October 2020. Jesus Ramos stopped Mexican southpaw Vladimir Hernandez (13-5, 6 KOs) in the sixth round of a fight Ramos was winning on all three scorecards on the Thurman-Barrios undercard.
“You know, I gotta make a big statement,” Jesus Ramos said. “I gotta show that I’m here, you know, I’m here to stay, that, you know, Vladimir Hernandez wasn’t just, you know, a one-time thing. That win is gonna lead to bigger things and that’s what I gotta show [Saturday night].”
Jesus Ramos-Santamaria is one of three undercard bouts Showtime Pay-Per-View will distribute before Baltimore’s Davis (26-0, 24 KOs) defends his WBA world lightweight title against Romero (14-0, 12 KOs), of North Las Vegas, Nevada. Showtime’s four-fight event is scheduled to start at 9 p.m. ET and costs $74.99.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.