Jesus Ramos realizes that some experienced contenders in Erickson Lubin’s position would not have agreed to fight him.
The powerful southpaw has beaten Brian Mendoza, who viciously knocked out Sebastian Fundora, an opponent who beat Lubin in one of the most fantastic action fights of 2022. Ramos dominated previously unbeaten Joey Spencer in his last fight and stopped spoiler Vladimir Hernandez in the sixth round two bouts before he opposed Spencer.
The 22-year-old junior middleweight contender represents real risk for Lubin (25-2, 18 KOs), who will attempt to fight his way back into position to challenge for a 154-pound championship on the Canelo Alvarez-Jermell Charlo undercard September 30 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“I’m coming up and he’s got a bit of a name already,” Ramos told BoxingScene.com. “You know, he’s risking a lot. I’ve gotta give him my respect. I feel like he fights anybody. I respect him because he lost to [Jermell] Charlo early in his career and he built himself back up, fought good names, so I honestly respect that, but we’re here to win.”
Ramos (20-0, 16 KOs) dropped Spencer late in the first round of their battle between ambitious, unbeaten combatants March 25 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The Casa Grande, Arizona native mostly controlled the action thereafter and led Spencer (16-1, 10 KOs) by wide distances on all three scorecards when Spencer’s father/trainer, Jason Spencer, stopped their scheduled 10-rounder on the David Benavidez-Caleb Plant undercard.
The emerging Ramos recognizes, though, that Lubin is a more capable, proven opponent than Spencer. The tough, strong southpaw from Orlando, Florida stopped former IBF/IBO/WBA 154-pound champion Jeison Rosario in the sixth round and easily outpointed contenders Nathaniel Gallimore and Terrell Gausha between his first-round knockout loss to Charlo in October 2017 and his technical-knockout defeat to Fundora in what was a very competitive interim title fight in April 2022.
“He’s a huge step up,” Ramos said. “He obviously has faced better competition than Joey Spencer did, but I feel like I’ve been in there with a lot of worthy names as well, like Brian Mendoza and Vladimir Hernandez, who was coming off a big win as well. So, I feel like I’ve been in there with great fighters as well, so I don’t feel like I’m inexperienced at this stage. I feel like I’m ready for this.”
Ramos commended Lubin and others on the Showtime Pay-Per-View portion of the Alvarez-Charlo undercard for accepting daunting assignments. In addition to Ramos-Lubin, young middleweights Elijah Garcia (15-0, 12 KOs) and Armando Resendiz (14-1, 10 KOs) and former champions Yordenis Ugas (27-5, 12 KOs) and Mario Barrios (27-2, 18 KOs) will square off in 12-rounders before Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs) defends his IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles against Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs).
“I think that’s the correct mindset right now,” Ramos said. “Everyone’s willing to fight each other and we’ve proven it. We’re fighting each other at a stage where I’m coming up and he’s trying to get back in the mix. We want this. We wanna prove ourselves. We wanna make statements. All that makes for more exciting fights.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.