Former unified 140-pound champion Jose Ramirez will make his Golden Boy Promotions debut in a homecoming fight in Fresno April 27, and he’s bringing unbeaten Vergil Ortiz Jr. with him, two officials confirmed to BoxingScene.
Central California’s Ramirez (28-1, 18 KOs) has long enjoyed a robust business drawing fight fans to Fresno’s Save Mart Arena and as he sets his sights on recapturing a belt in the division, he is mulling two ranked foes.
According to an individual connected to the discussions but not authorized to speak publicly on the matter because financial negotiations are pending, Ramirez is considering a date against either former IBF super-lightweight champion Sergey Lipinets (17-3-1, 13 KOs) or former IBF lightweight champion Rances Barthelemy (30-2-1, 15 KOs).
Kazakhstan’s Lipinets lost his belt in a 2018 bout against Mikey Garcia, the brother of Ramirez’s trainer, Robert Garcia.
Cuba’s Barthelemy, 38, has twice fought for a 140-pound belt, losing by unanimous decision to Kiryl Relikh in 2018 and then battling Robert Easter to a split draw one year later.
A 2012 U.S. Olympian, Ramirez, 31, hasn’t fought since his March 25, 2023, 11th-round knockout of former 140–pound champion Richard Commey in Fresno.
Ramirez later left promoter Top Rank to join Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions in January.
The Fresno card gives Golden Boy a powerful spring line-up that includes 140-pound title challenger Ryan Garcia meeting unbeaten champion Devin Haney at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center April 20 and Golden Boy’s unbeaten Jaime Munguia challenging undisputed super-middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez May 4 in Las Vegas.
Ortiz (20-0, 20 KOs) is another jewel of the De La Hoya stable as he returns from his first-round knockout of Fredrick Lawson on Jan. 6.
Returning from the blood disorder rhabdomyolysis and the inactivity of just one bout in 29 months before that night, Ortiz weighed in two pounds over the junior-middleweight limit.
The 25-year-old Texan nevertheless is ranked No. 6 by the WBO and WBC among junior-middleweights, and is expected to improve the quality of his competition following his work against the April 27 opponent, who has yet to be finalized.
DAZN will stream the April 27 card.