{"id":590043,"date":"2025-11-24T04:02:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T04:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/590043\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T04:02:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T04:02:16","slug":"zurdo-ramirez-to-defend-unified-world-titles-vs-robin-safar-jan-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/590043\/","title":{"rendered":"Zurdo Ramirez To Defend Unified World Titles vs. Robin Safar, Jan. 16"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gilberto Ramirez<\/a> and Robin Safar<\/a> have struck a deal to fight for Zurdo’s WBA and WBO cruiserweight world titles on Jan. 16 in Palm Desert, California, sources tell The Ring<\/a>.
The fight will be paired with the Alexis Rocha-Raul Curiel rematch on DAZN<\/a>. Zurdo must win to keep his planned May 2 fight with David Benavidez<\/a> intact.
After Benavidez stopped Anthony Yarde<\/a> in Round 7 of Saturday\u2019s The Ring IV main event in Riyadh, he announced he would move up 25 pounds<\/a> and chase a title in a third weight class with a fight vs. Ramirez. <\/p>\n

Benavidez, The Ring\u2019s No. 2 boxer at 175 pounds, was making the first defense of his WBC light heavyweight title. The victory was Benavidez\u2019s first inside the distance at light heavyweight after two decision wins.<\/p>\n

Ramirez, like Benavidez, is a former super middleweight titleholder. The Mexican moved up to 175 pounds and was routed in a light heavyweight title bid vs. Dmitry Bivol<\/a> in 2022.
Ramirez (48-1, 30 KOs) is The Ring\u2019s No. 1 boxer at 200 pounds (Jai Opetaia<\/a> is The Ring\u2019s cruiserweight champion.) Ramirez, 34, scored a unanimous-decision victory over former titleholder Yuniel Dorticos in June. Afterward, he underwent shoulder surgery<\/a>.
Safar, like Ramirez, is promoted by Golden Boy. The 32-year-old Swede, who fights out of Las Vegas, became a contender at 200 pounds when he upset former champion Sergey Kovalev<\/a> via decision in May 2024 in Riyadh. Safar (18-0, 13 KOs) dropped Kovalev in the 10th and final round. <\/p>\n

Safar is rated No. 9 by The Ring at cruiserweight. <\/p>\n

Benavidez, a Mexican-American, is slated to meet Ramirez in a Cinco De Mayo showdown, the boxing holiday reserved for boxing\u2019s top stars. This week, Benavidez (31-0, 25 KOs) has been vocal about his desire to wrest away the date from Canelo Alvarez<\/a>, boxing\u2019s top attraction.
The Ring\u2019s Manouk Akopyan reported earlier this month<\/a> that Ramirez would stage a tune-up fight Jan. 16.<\/p>\n

Mike Coppinger is The Ring\u2019s senior insider. Follow him on X\/Instagram: @MikeCoppinger. He co-hosts Inside The Ring every Monday with Max Kellerman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gilberto Ramirez and Robin Safar have struck a deal to fight for Zurdo’s WBA and WBO cruiserweight world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,10188,10181,10187,10186,10179,4496,10182,10183,10184,10185,10180,10193,10192,10175,10173,10174,10190,10176,10172,10194,10189,79,10191,10171,10178,16,15,10177],"class_list":{"0":"post-590043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-community","10":"tag-boxing-fights","11":"tag-boxing-history","12":"tag-boxing-interviews","13":"tag-boxing-magazine","14":"tag-boxing-news","15":"tag-boxing-photos","16":"tag-boxing-rankings","17":"tag-boxing-results","18":"tag-boxing-schedule","19":"tag-boxing-videos","20":"tag-disqualification","21":"tag-draw","22":"tag-fight","23":"tag-fighter","24":"tag-fighter-news","25":"tag-knockout","26":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","27":"tag-ring","28":"tag-ring-magazine","29":"tag-split-decision","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-technical-knockout","32":"tag-the-ring","33":"tag-top-fighters","34":"tag-uk","35":"tag-united-kingdom","36":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115602688785284414","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}