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WBO cruiserweight champion Chris Billiam and WBA champ Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez will meet in a 12-round unification fight on November 16th at The Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
This two-belt unification clash between ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez (46-1, 30 KOs) and Billiam Smith (20-1, 13 KOs) is part of a Riyadh Season event.
Ramirez’s Resurgence at Cruiserweight
It’s a toss-up fight. Ramirez, 33, has turned his career around since losing to WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol on November 5, 2022, and subsequently moving up to cruiserweight.
Zurdo Ramirez has since won his last two fights, beating Joe Smith Jr. by a 12-round unanimous decision and dethroning WBA cruiserweight champion Arsen Goulamirian, winning a 12-round unanimous decision on March 30th in Inglewood, California.
Billiam Smith, 33, has won 11 fights in a row and has looked outstanding recently, beating Richard Riakporhe, Mateusz Masternak, Lawrence Okolie, Armend Xhoxhaj, and Isaac Chamberlain.
Smith’s victory over WBO champion Okolie was especially impressive because many boxing fans had predicted that the 6’5″ Lawrence would win. It’s unclear if Okolie’s struggles to make weight factored into the loss. It was obvious that he was at the end of his run at cruiserweight and needed to move up in weight.
The former WBO super middleweight champion Zurdo Ramirez has changed his fighting style in his last two fights, going from being a volume puncher to a clever boxer.
He’s used movement, jabbing, and clinching to win his last two fights against Joe Smith Jr. and Arsen Goulamirian to reinvent himself as a cruiserweight after his loss to Bivol.
Ramirez will need more than tricks to be victorious against Billiam Smith because he will be applying a lot of pressure, and he will not have problems dealing with the 6’3″ champion’s mobility.
It’s unclear who will be on the undercard of the Ramirez vs. Billiam Smith fight, but given that it’s a Riyadh Season event, there should be some interesting fights.
Rumored undercard
- William Zepeda vs. Tevin Farmer
- Jose Ramirez vs. Arnold Barboza
- Bek ‘The Bully’ vs. Lester Martinez
- Oscar Duarte vs. Kenneth Sims Jr
5 exceptional matchups at “Latino Night” in Riyadh 🇸🇦🏆
featuring a main fight between Cruiserweight champions Ramirez (WBA) and Smith (WBO), along with fights featuring top boxing 🥊🔥🗓️ November 16
📍 The Venue #BigTime#RiyadhSeason pic.twitter.com/0iO06YP4q0— Golden Boy (@GoldenBoyBoxing) September 10, 2024
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