By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten Dmitry Bivol of Russia will be defending his WBA Super World Light Heavyweight Title against undefeated Gilberto Ramirez of Mexico this Saturday, November 5th. The 12-rounder from Abu Dhabi can be seen live in most nations on DAZN. Bivol last fought in May when he easily beat Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez by unanimous decision. Ramirez was last in action in May also when he stopped Dominic Boesel in the fourth round.
The 31-year-old Bivol was born in Kyrgyzstan and now fights out of California. He enjoyed an excellent amateur career with a reported record of 268-15 and won numerous national championships before turning pro in 2014. Since then he’s boxed 160 rounds and has compiled a perfect record of 20-0 with 11 Kos. He has pretty good power in his punches with a current knockout ratio of 55 per cent, but has gone the distance in his last seven outings.
Bivol, who stands 6-feet tall with a 72-inch reach, owns smooth boxing skills and always seems to eventually wear his foes down with his heavy hands. He’s faced some good opponents so far with wins over Alvarez, Lenin Castillo, Joe Smith, Jean Pascal, Isaac Chilemba, Sullivan Barrera, Cedric Agnew, Robert Berridge and Felix Valera. Bivol won the interim WBA Championship in May, 2016 when he beat Valera by a unanimous decision.
He was then elevated to full champion when Badou Jack gave up the WBA title after beating former champ Nathan Cleverly. He’d like to unify the light heavyweight titles and has already beaten current WBO champ Joe Smith Jr, but did so when Smith wasn’t the belt holder, so that leaves a potential fight with WBC and IBF champ Artur Beterbiev if he can get past Ramirez this weekend.
The 31-year-old Ramirez is a southpaw who became the first Mexican to capture a world super middleweight title when he beat Arthur Abraham via unanimous decision in 2016 for the WBO Belt. He’ll enter the ring with a perfect record of 44-0 with 30 Ko’s. He stands close to 6-feet-3-inches tall and has a reach of 75 inches which gives him a 2.5-inch height advantage over Bivol as well as three inches in reach. Ramirez made his pro debut in 2009 and has fought 255 rounds since.
Ramirez possesses quite a bit of power in his fists with a current knockout ratio of 68.2 per cent and has won his last five fights by stoppage. He’s is a bit of an oddity for such a tall boxer though since he doesn’t always use his height to his advantage. Ramirez often prefers to work his way inside to engage instead of fighting at a safer distance. After beating Abraham, Ramirez defended his title against Max Bursak and Jesse Hart by unanimous decisions and stopped Habib Ahmed in six rounds.
He then beat Roamer Alexis Angulo by unanimous decision and Jesse Hart by majority decision in a rematch before moving up in weight to face Tommy Karpency and stopped him after four rounds. He then stopped Alfonso Lopez for the NABF Light Heavyweight Crown and decided to stay in the 175 lb division. Overall, Ramirez has stopped six of his last eight opponents after going the distance in eight out of 12 at one point.
Some of his other noteworthy opponents have been Sullivan Barrera, Derek Edwards, Fulgencio Zuniga, Junior Talipeau, and Derrick Findley. Ramirez has gone undefeated up to now basically because of a combination of power, skills and aggressiveness. He needs to tighten up defensively if he wants to remain unbeaten but has displayed a solid chin up to now. However, he may be more effective if he took better advantage of his height and controlled the distance in his bouts.
Prediction…
Fans are never sure which Bivol will show up. At his best he looks like a devastating puncher who can take anybody out but often looks lethargic while being forced to go the distance and doing just enough to win. Bivol seems to fight to the level of his opponent too often but was at his best against Canelo Alvarez and will need to be again this weekend as Ramirez should force him to fight. The outcome will depend on Ramirez’s tactics. If he decides to throw caution to the wind and just comes out letting his fists fly then I think he’ll do enough to win it. However, a more cautious approach won’t work as he’ll simply be outboxed by Bivol. Ramirez needs to stick to his strengths which are aggression, size and power and simply go for it. He’s got a great chin and should be able to handle Bivol’s power. If Ramirez presses the action I’m expecting him to pull this out.
