With WBC junior welterweight champion Jose Ramirez (24-0, 16 KOs) set to unify titles with WBO champion Maurice Hooker (26-0-3) on July 27th in Arlington, Texas, Ramirez’s trainer Robert Garcia talks a bit about the fight and why he thinks it will turn out to be one of the best fights of the year. Check out some excerpts below...
On Ramirez-Hooker having been rumored for a long time but now finally happening:
“It was a surprise...it’s hard to see, you know, Top Rank work something out with another network. It’s hard, it’s hard. But they were able to pull it off and now we’re here, you know. We’re excited, we’re happy that this fight is really happening because at 140, it’s a fight that needs to happen.
“Hooker has shown in his last couple of fights that he’s a tremendous warrior. Jose has already shown it also since he became champion and a couple different title defenses that he’s had. It just has the tools to become become one of the best fights of the year.”
On if there’s an underwhelming response to this fight only because neither Ramirez nor Hooker are “big names”:
“Look, us in boxing, we know the type of fight it’s gonna be. Outside of boxing, yeah, people might not really know the importance of this fight, they might not think it’s gonna be that much of a fight because Hooker is still not the name that other fighters are. Jose’s a big name in California, but he’s coming to Dallas so it’s not the same like if we were at home. So that’s the only difference, but when it comes to the fight itself, with both fighters against each other, it’s the fight that needs to happen.”
On why he likes Ramirez’s chances to unify titles in this outing:
“Look, it’s not gonna be easy but that’s our plan. We are training very hard, Jose’s already sparring, sparring hard, sparring top welterweights and he’s gonna be ready to walk out of the ring with both belts.”
On fighting in the Dallas area:
“Texas is our second home, you know. We love fighting in Texas. Dallas, you know, we’ve had great fights here in Dallas and we have fighters from Dallas that train with us so, you know, we’re excited to be here with Jose being able to show his skills, his talent and gifts, and give the fans the type of fights that he always does here in Dallas. It’s unbelievable, we’re very happy to be here.”