Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez and Yuniel Dorticos were granted additional time to reach an agreement.
A ten-day delay has come to the scheduled WBA cruiserweight title fight, the sanctioning body announced on Monday. The case was scheduled for a purse hearing on Tuesday, but has been postponed with the hope that the two parties will reach a settlement.
“The World Boxing Association (WBA) Championships Committee has approved the request to extend the negotiation period,” the WBA said. “This Tuesday, August 27, the auction for the fight was to take place. At the request of the parties, the WBA gave permission for them to continue to negotiate and reach an agreement.
“The committee will monitor all discussions and hope that in the next few days there will be good news about the agreement for the fight.”
Ramirez-Dorticos was enjoined on July 1 and granted a 30-day negotiation period.
It was the first piece of business for Ramirez (46-1, 30 knockouts) since the end of his three-year deal with Golden Boy Promotions. The Mexican southpaw is expected to continue doing business with them as a co-promotion with his own Zurdo Promotions.
Dorticos (27-2, 25 KOs), a former WBA and IBF title holder, is co-promoted by Warriors Boxing and The Heavyweight Factory.
Ramirez dethroned long-reigning but severely inactive Arsen Goulamirian to win the title on March 30 in Inglewood, California. In their entertaining DAZN main event, Ramirez took out the California-based Armenian.
It was the start of a second division title reign for Ramirez, a 33-year-old southpaw who previously held the WBO super middleweight belt. He came up short in a November 2022 challenge from WBA 175-pound titleholder Dmitry Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs).
Two wins have followed since a move to cruiserweight, where Ramirez is ranked No. 4 by The Ring.
Both of Dorticos’ previous titles reign during the World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) cruiserweight tournaments. He was stopped in the 12st round by Murat Gassiev in their February 2018 WBSS season one semifinal and unification match between undefeated titleholders.
Dorticos advanced to the WBSS finals during the second season, but dropped a twelve-round decision to Mairis Briedis (28-3, 20 KOs).
Just three fights followed, all of which ended in early knockouts. Dorticos ended an eighteen-month inactive period with a first-round stoppage of Alan Campa on June 8 in Hollywood, Florida. He was dropped from The Ring’s top 10 after one year. The victory over Campa has not yet been recognized by The Ring Ratings Panel as grounds for re-entering the rankings.
However, he was already the established WBA mandatory challenger. Ramirez has been granted a title shot in front of the 38-year-old Cuban, provided they meet immediately.
That fight is now included, per WBA Rule C.13. No boxer can enter another bout until the conditions for this contest have been satisfied by all parties.