The World Boxing Association (WBA) has ordered a title bout between Mexican WBA “super” cruiserweight champion Gilberto Ramirez and Cuban contender Yuniel Dorticos. The mandate had been expected to be made since before Ramirez defeated the former holder of the WBA title, Frenchman Arsen Goulamirian, as the sanctioning body had designated Dorticos as the mandatory challenger prior to Ramirez’s March 30th win over Goulamirian to claim the WBA belt for himself.
Yuniel Dorticos (27-2, 25 KO’s) was initially chosen by the WBA as a mandatory challenger in October of 2023 but seemed a rather poor choice of a contender having not fought for roughly 10 months when the WBA made its mandate for a Goulamirian-Dorticos fight.
However, Dorticos recently fought on June 7th to stave off the effects of inactivity, making him a more significant challenger at this point in time and allowing Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (46-1, 30 KO’s) an actual challenge as he prepares for the first defense of his WBA “super” cruiserweight (200 lbs) title.
Both fighters have been given 30 days to negotiate, starting from July 1st to July 31st. The compulsory purse bid proceedings will be initiated if both fighters fail to reach an agreement during this 30-day period.
In a purse bid scenario, it is likely that Ramirez’s promoter, Top Rank, would win the rights to stage this title fight as Dorticos is signed to a less prevalent promotion in Warriors Boxing, and his co-promotional deal with The Heavyweight Factory is also not expected to substantially increase the Warriors being able to monetarily compete with Top Rank.
Top Rank’s affluent position within the sport could therefore potentially allow the fight to be staged in Ramirez’s home country of Mexico, depending on his popularity with the country’s fanbase, or the United States where Top Rank is based. Recent history would dictate the fight would be held in the US given Ramirez’ past couple of fights there, and the fact he hasn’t fought in Mexico since 2013.
One notable aspect of the WBA’s press release regarding this mandate was the revelation that both fighters would be allowed a longer time frame to stage their fight. Normally, Gilberto Ramirez would have only 2 months [or 60 days] to fight a mandatory opponent since winning his WBA title on March 30th, requiring the fighters to compete on July 29th by the latest, but an exception was made by the WBA’s committee. This is likely to allow both fighters to recuperate fully after having fought recently; specifically Dorticos who fought roughly over a month ago.
The mandate seems to show some effort by the WBA to be more consistent following the tenure of Arsen Goulamirian (27-1, 19 KO’s) as their WBA 200 lbs champion, which saw his activity sharply decline after 2019 and several title defenses prior. Goulamirian would go on to return to the ring in 2022, almost three years after his last fight in 2019, but it would would take nearly two years later for him to compete again when he faced Gilberto Ramirez past this March.
During that period, the WBA had notably neglected to order Goulamirian to face a mandatory opponent, and even allowed him to avoid facing Dorticos immediately as he chose to engage with Ramirez instead in a voluntary fight―under the condition of the winner facing mandatory challenger Dorticos after.
This path proved to be fatal to the Frenchman, however, as Gilberto Ramirez now holds his hard-won title after their March 30th match while Goulamirian’s own career seems to have very much halted, with no return date yet confirmed for the former world champion.
