Jesus Ramos is back at full strength in time for the toughest test of his young career. (photo by Ryan Hafey)
BoxingScene.com has learned that a crossroads bout is in play between Ramos and former title challenger Erickson Lubin. The junior middleweight clash of southpaw contenders is targeted to land as the co-feature on the September 30 Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez-Jermell Charlo Showtime Pay-Per-View event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
News of the fight was first reported by Big Fight Weekend.
The bout will mark the fourth straight appearance in such a capacity for Ramos (20-0, 16KOs), a red-hot 22-year-old southpaw from Casa Grande, Arizona. He was due to serve in a similar capacity on the July 29 Terence Crawford-Errol Spence card but a hand injury forced him to withdraw from a planned clash versus Spain’s Sergio Garcia.
Ramos (20-0, 16KOs) was last seen in an eighth-round demolition of Joey Spencer in their battle of unbeaten 154-pound boxers on March 25. The bout was part of the PPV undercard for the David Benavidez-Caleb Plant interim super middleweight title fight from MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.
Ramos was also prominently featured on the Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis-Rolando Romero and Keith Thurman-Mario Barrios PPV undercard in his two 2022 appearances.
Lubin (25-2, 18KO) punched his way back into the win column in his most recent outing, a fifth-round stoppage of Luis Arias on June 24 in Minneapolis. The ring appearance was his first since a ninth-round stoppage to then-unbeaten Sebastian Fundora in their hellacious interim WBC junior middleweight title fight last April 9 at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
The hard-fought but punishing defeat to Fundora ended a six-fight win streak for Orlando’s Lubin. His previous loss came in a shocking first-round knockout to Charlo in their October 2017 WBC junior middleweight title fight.
Charlo has since fully unified the division after a tenth-round knockout of unbeaten Brian Castano in their rematch last May 14 in Carson, California. A broken hand injury forced Houston’s Charlo out of a planned WBO mandatory title defense versus Tim Tszyu (23-0, 17KOs), who holds the interim belt for now and will be upgraded to full titlist once the bell sounds for the September 30 main event.
The decision by Charlo to move up two divisions to challenge Alvarez (59-2-2, 39KOs) has created a logjam at the contender level in the junior middleweight division.
Brian Mendoza (22-2, 16KOs) claimed the interim WBC title with a stunning, come-from-behind knockout of Fundora on April 8 in Carson, California. Bakhram Murtazaliev (21-0, 15KOs) has collected several step-aside payments since he became the IBF mandatory in November 2019. Israil Madrimov (9-0-1, 6KOs) is the WBA mandatory challenger.
The winner of Ramos-Lubin will somehow figure into that mix, whether versus a returning Charlo or as part of a division revival.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox