“We know the importance of being active. That was always a goal of ours,” Ramirez told BoxingScene.com. “I feel the difference when we go too many months between fights.
“There was an opportunity to get this fight and date so we jumped on it.”
Ramirez-Shimizu will take place July 25 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. The bout is the co-feature to the Stephen Fulton-Naoya Inoue WBC/WBO junior featherweight title fight, as part of a show that will stream live on ESPN+ in the U.S.
The 115-day stretch between fights is in line with Ramirez’s career pace thus far. Not even the pandemic or a loss in his pro debut has prevented the Cuban export from going even six months without a fight. Ramirez was back in the ring three months after a stunning defeat to Adan Gonzales in his first pro fight in August 2019.
By the time they met in a July 2020 rematch, Ramirez already won three straight while Gonzales didn’t fight at all. Ramirez prevailed via six-round shutout as part of his current twelve-fight win streak.
The longest inactive stretch he’s seen thus far was 161 days between a December 2020 stoppage victory over Brandon Valdez—which was his fifth fight of 2020, and fourth in six months while in the MGM Bubble during the pandemic—and a May 2021 points win over Ryan Lee Alan. He waited 154 days from his ninth-round knockout of Jose Matias Romero last October 29—his third fight of 2022—to his title-winning effort over Dogboe.
“We didn’t take any damage in our last fight, it wasn’t very physical or taxing on my body. So it was a no-brainer to come back right away. Being able to fight in Japan for the first time as an amateur or pro was the cherry on top.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox