Gilberto Ramirez: 'What Canelo is doing is very disappointing'

Amir Khan was still being attended to by the ringside physician after suffering a brutal knock out, courtesy of Canelo Alvarez, when Alvarez ran over to the ropes at the T-Mobile Arena and called Gennady Golovkin into the ring.

It was a dramatic moment and seemed to be the making of the mouth-watering middleweight title fight boxing fans had been wanting for the better part of a year.

With a grin on his face, Golovkin walked into the ring. And in his post-fight comments, Alvarez seemed to kill any concerns that boxing politics would get in the way of making the fight.

“Like they say in Mexico, “We don’t [expletive] around,’ ” Alvarez said. “We don’t come to play in this sport. I fear no one. I’ll fight him right now. Let’s put the gloves on and get in there now.”

Less than two weeks after the May 7 bout, Alvarez gave up his WBC title rather than make a deal by the May 21 deadline. And last week, Alvarez’s team announced that he’d fight Golovkin, but not until September 2017.

It was a bad look – a horrible, short-sighted look that made the fighter look afraid – and did nothing to enhance his image.

But Golden Boy’s reticence is another man’s opportunity. New WBC super middleweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, who won the belt in April by routing Arthur Abraham, is already calling for Golovkin.

Ramirez, who faces unheralded German Dominik Britsch on July 23 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on the pay-per-view undercard of the Terence Crawford-Viktor Postol fight, is eager to take on Golovkin as soon as possible.

“What Canelo is doing is very disappointing for us as boxing fans,” Ramirez said. “A lot of us want to see that fight, him and Golovkin. But when he says something in the ring that, ‘Yeah, I want to fight him,’ and then turns around and decides he’s not going to fight him, it makes all of us boxers look bad, especially him. By not taking a fight that everybody wants to see and has been asking him to take, and which he said he would take, it’s bad.

“He said it was for the title and that it was for pride, but obviously, he has neither. He doesn’t have the title or the pride. Boxing takes a shot when that happens, saying things and not coming through with them.”

So Ramirez, promoter Bob Arum and adviser Sean Gibbons are all of the mind to chase a Golovkin fight as quickly as possible.

Arum said if Ramirez defeats Britsch, he’d ideally face a well-known super middleweight contender in the fall and then meet Golovkin in the first three months of next year.

It’s a lot to ask of a 25-year-old with not a lot of experience against top opposition. Gibbons said he brought Ramirez to Top Rank three years ago because he knew the company could get him work with the elite fighters who would help speed up his progress.

But he’s also confident that Ramirez has the tools to win the fight and not just get a big payday. Ramirez is 6-foot-2 and has a 75-inch reach. Golovkin is 5-foot-10 with a 70-inch reach.

“Ramirez has seen everything in the gym and let’s be honest here: Triple-G is a one-dimensional fighter,” Gibbons said. “He’s really great offensively, but his defense is zero. He’s not the ’85 Bears.

“And I think that the jump from 160 to 168 is the biggest leap you have to make. Those guys at 168, they’re walking around at 190, 195. Gilberto has those long arms and while I know Triple-G can crack, he’s going to be getting whacked over and over as he tries to come in. He’ll be getting lit up with punches and he hasn’t been in that situation before.”

That’s all if, as Ramirez cautioned, he gets past Britsch. Arum, though, believes Ramirez has a shot to become a pay-per-view star and said a win over Golovkin could be the momentum he needs.

Arum said pay-per-view is the only way to create stars in today’s business environment for boxing.

“I have great confidence in Zurdo, and while I think Golovkin is an excellent fighter, I believe my guy beats him,” Arum said. “If he does, that catapults him into a big pay-per-view star. If you look at the boxing business today, except in England, it totally sucks. Unless you can make a guy a pay-per-view star, you’re just grinding wheels. You lose money here and maybe make a little money here, but the only way this business works any more is for a guy to be a pay-per-view star.

“So a guy like Zurdo, who has the capability and the personality and the ability to be a pay-per-view star, you have to take the shot. And the way to do that is to have him fight Golovkin and win it. He’s got the charisma and he’s a real good-looking kid … and he’s learning to speak English. He’s got it all, but it’s a matter of putting it together and coming through with a win over a guy like Golovkin.”

Despite being a world champion, Ramirez still has a low profile, but he thinks big. And you can’t fault him for that. He compared himself to “throwback fighters” who were always ready for any challenge.

“I want to be one of the best pound-for-pound guys and I want to be remembered as a great fighter,” he said. “Someone like Muhammad Ali, he gave everyone a chance and he took risks and the people loved him because of it.

“My job is to fight, and I’m never going to say I’ll fight this guy and then refuse to fight him. That’s not me. I’m going to fight the best fights I can. I can only fight who they put in front of me, but I am asking them to give me the best they have.”