Gilberto Ramirez Confidant of Victory Against Jai Opetaia

Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez claims that a fight between him and IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia is not a “50-50 inches fight for him Ramirez (47-1, 30 KOs) says he has “the best chance” to beat everyone in the division, including Opetaia (26-0, 20 KOs). Opetaia could be next for Ramirez, so he needs to back up what he says.

(Credit: Golden Boy/Cris Esqueda)

Fans believe Ramirez has no chance of beating Opetaia and will be eliminated. Opetaia is seen as a bigger, stronger and younger version of Dmitri Bivol. Ramirez lost to Bivol by a one-sided twelve-round unanimous decision in 2022, but it could be worse for him if he faces Opetaia.

The 33-year-old Ramirez added the WBO cruiserweight title to his existing WBA belt by defeating the champion Chris Billiam-Smith (20-2, 13 KOs) on Saturday’s Latino Night at The Venue in Saudi Arabia. It was hard to believe Billiam-Smith was a world champion because he looked no better than the British level.

The cruiserweight division is poor in terms of talent, allowing fighters like Billiam-Smith and Zurdo Ramirez to win titles that they otherwise wouldn’t have if they fought at light heavyweight or super middleweight.

In that fight, Ramirez took a lot of heavy shots from Billiam-Smith, but outworked and outboxed the limited-appearance fighter to win a 12-round unanimous decision by scores of 116-112, 116-112, 116-113 .

“It looked like he was throwing hard punches, but it didn’t do anything to me,” said Gilberto Ramirez. Boxing King Media when asked if he was affected by the beating of Chris Billiam-Smith in his victory over him on Saturday.

If Billiam-Smith had a good set of wheels and better conditioning, he would have caught up to Ramirez and hurt him with something big enough to knock him out. Billiam-Smith beat Ramirez a lot, but due to his stamina and lack of mobility, he was unable to use his power.

“I don’t know about 50-50. I think I have the best chance to beat everybody in this division,” Ramirez said when fans believed a fight between him and IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia would be a “50-50” one.

I don’t think Ramirez has much of a chance to beat Opetaia because he is too slow and easy to hit. The only chance Ramirez has against him is if he can beat him in a war, walk through shots and outwork him. We saw how well Mairis Briedis did against Opetaia in their rematch. It’s possible Ramirez could do the same thing.

“Everyone saw what we did in the ring, and now everyone is talking about me. This is the second time I’ve beaten a champion in the division, and now people think I’m the real deal,” says Ramirez. “I know I’m the best cruiserweight in the division.”

Not many fans saw the Latino Night event on DAZN last Saturday night. The fans who did see Ramirez beat Billiam-Smith and former WBA champion Arsen Goulamirian were not impressed enough to believe he could defeat Opetaia or even be competitive.