Promoter Eddie Hearn wants the unified WBA & WBO cruiserweight champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez to fight his fighter, IBF champ Jai Opetaia, next in a three-belt championship match.
Hearn NEEDS Ramirez (47-1, 30 KOs) and his promoters at Golden Boy to agree to the unification because the IBF has ordered Opetaia (26-0, 20 KOs) to defend against his mandatory next, Huseyin Cinkara (22-0, 18 KOs).
That fight will attract little interest on DAZN. Opetaia’s Australian fans will not mind him defending against the 39-year-old Cinkara, but the rest of the world will not be excited about the fight.
What Does De La Hoya Stand to Gain?
Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya probably won’t want to do Hearn any favors by putting together a fight between his guy, Zurdo Ramirez, and Opetaia because he would be the underdog in that match. De La Hoya and Golden Boy should thumb their noses at Hearn and focus on continuing to match Ramirez against guys they know he can beat.
De La Hoya made a mistake once of letting Zurdo fight Hearn’s fight Dmitry Bivol in 2022, and he was beaten for the first time in his career by a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision. Oscar probably isn’t going to want to help Hearn out again by matching Ramirez against Opetaia and watching him get rivaled by the IBF champ.
If you’re De la Hoya, you want to continue with putting Ramirez in with fighters like Chris Billiam-Smith and Arsen Goulamirian to try and make him a star. I don’t think it’s possible at this point to turn the 33-year-old Ramirez into a star, but that won’t keep De La Hoya from continuing to try.
Ramirez is a good fighter, but he’s easy to hit, as we saw in his fight against Billiam-Smith. It would be a disaster for De La Hoya to match him against Opetaia, who can really punch.
“It’s the best fight in the division, and it’s a must-make fight. As good as Zurdo is, Opetaia’s a different animal,” said Hearn to @DAZNBoxing.
Cinkara vs. Opetaia: A Mandatory But Less Appealing Fight
Cinkara stopped Armend Xhoxha in the second round on April 27th in an IBF eliminator to become the mandatory for Opetaia’s belt.
It’s not a big deal for Opetaia to face Cinkara next because most of the guys he’s fought during his nine-year career in Australia have been little-known opposition.
The only known guy that Opetaia fought was Mairis Briedis, and he gave him all kinds of problems in their rematch. In that fight, Opetaia looked afraid when he started taking punishment and fought a lot like a bigger version of Shakur Stevenson, motoring around the ring, trying not to get hit.
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