“Latino Night Riyadh Season” presented by Golden Boy Promotions promises to bring fireworks on Saturday.
There are titles on the line and a California rivalry that has been brewing for years.
The main event will see Mexico’s first cruiserweight (200 pounds/90 kilograms) champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (46-1, 30 KO’s), against Chris Billam-Smith (20-1 13kos) in a unification match.
Ramirez has long been a question mark for fans. He has had exciting fights and big knockouts, but has also delivered lackluster fights in which he has struggled with opponents of inferior talent.
He lost a fight to the light heavyweight (175 pounds/79 kilograms) champion Dmitrii Bivol and has followed up with two cruiserweight victories, including an upset of champion Arsen Goulamirian.
Billam-Smith has produced similar results, as he has a big win over domestic rival Lawrence Okolie in a sloppy fight, and has followed up with two defenses before this fight.
This fight could set up a major showdown for the winner with division kingpin Jai Opetaia.
This fight could also go either way as Smith is a natural cruiserweight and Zurdo was a champion in the super middleweight (168 pounds/76 kilograms) division.
If “Zurdo” can pull out a victory, it could mean a lot for his legacy in Mexican boxing as he’d be a two-division champion and unified as a cruiserweight.
In Smith’s case, he could unify and accomplish a major goal for his career.
The co-main event here will see a fight that was more meant to be placed in California or Las Vegas. It will be Central California vs Southern California as Jose Ramirez (29-1, 18 KO’s) takes on Arnold Barboza, Jr (30-0, 11 KO’s).
This fight has been brewing for years and looked to be set for at different times. The fight shouldn’t be affected despite that they are fighting on the other side of the world rather than in California, as it promises to be all action.
Barboza, Jr feels that Ramirez has been avoiding him for years. Ramirez has been adamant that he has not ducked Barboza, Jr., and the former unified champion has pointed to the fact that he was battling for an undisputed title fight.
Regardless, this is a big fight for both, and it should provide fireworks, with the winner positioning himself for a title shot.
The other fights include buzzsaw William “El Camarón” Zepeda (31-0, 27 KO’s) as he takes on Tevin Farmer (33-6, 8 KO’s).
Zepeda is the number one ranked contender for the lightweight (135 pounds/61 kilograms) division across all major sanctioning bodies.
In Farmer, he takes on a former champion who was out of boxing for a few years and has now returned. Farmer will also be fighting his second undefeated opponent, as he took on Raymond Muratalla in the summer.
If Zepeda can manage to stop Farmer, it will send a message to the division as Farmer doesn’t engage too often and is very good defensively. He is there to test Zepeda and try to upset Zepeda’s title shot.
