Arsen Goulamirian, Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez Make Weight For WBA Cruiserweight Title Fight

Arsen ‘Feroz’ Goulamirian waited more than a year for this moment to once again defend his cruiserweight title.

Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez has desired another title shot for a similar amount of time after he came up short in his previous attempt.

Both boxers did their job at the scales and came in just inside the 200-pound limit during Friday’s official pre-fight weigh-in.

Goulamirian, No. 6 at 200, checked in at a ripped 199.6 pounds ahead of his fourth full WBA title defense. Ramirez, No. 10 at 200, was a career-heaviest but well-distributed 199.4 pounds as he aims for a second divisional title. The 32-year-old southpaw from Mazatlan, Mexico previously held the WBO 168-pound title.

Their scheduled 12-round title fight headlines a DAZN show presented by Golden Boy Promotions, this Saturday from YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California.

Goulamirian (27-0, 18 knockouts) fights in the U.S. for the first time as a pro. The 36-year-old Armenia-born boxer has predominantly fought in France during his 13-year-pro career.

He hasn’t fought much of anywhere in the past four years, however. Just one bout has come in that time, a November 2022 twelve-round win over unbeaten Aleksei Egorov in Le Cannet, France. He was previously tied to a mandatory title defense versus former two-time titlist Yuniel Dorticos. The ordered bout was due for a purse bid but never revisited, which contributed to Goulamirian’s 16-month ring absence.

Goulamirian stopped Ryad Merhy in eleventh round of their March 2018 secondary WBA title fight between unbeaten contenders. He was upgraded to full WBA titlist when Oleksandr Usyk (21-0, 14KOs) vacated his RING and undisputed cruiserweight championship in 2019 to compete at heavyweight.

Ramirez (45-1, 30 KOs) has fought just once above the light heavyweight limit. It came in his most recent victory, a ten-round decision over Joe Smith Jr. last October 7 in Las Vegas. Ramirez won by scores of 99-91 on all three cards in their battle of former titlists. The bout came at a contracted 193-pound catchweight, though the full cruiserweight limit is in effect for Saturday’s title fight.

The win was his first ring appearance since a November 2022 defeat to unbeaten WBA light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol. A planned bout last March versus Gabriel Rosado was canceled during fight week. Ramirez was well over the contracted weight, at which point his team agreed on the necessary move up in weight.

A win on Saturday will see Ramirez make history as the first-ever Mexican to claim a major cruiserweight title.

Below are the weights for the rest of the undercard.

DAZN co-feature, 10 rounds, welterweight
Alexis Rocha (23-2, 15 KOs), Santa Ana, California, 146.6 pounds
Fredrick Lawson (30-4, 22 KOs), Chicago via Accra, Ghana, 146 pounds

DAZN prelim, 10 rounds, Junior Bantamweight
Ricardo Rafael Sandoval (23-2, 16 KOs), Rialto, California, 115 pounds
Carlos Buitrago (38-12-1, 22 KOs), Managua, Nicaragua, 116.4 pounds

DAZN prelim, 10 rounds, Welterweight
Santiago Dominguez (26-0, 20 KOs), Fort Worth, Texas, 146.8 pounds
Jose Luis Sanchez (14-3-1, 4 KOs), Albuquerque, New Mexico, 149 pounds

DAZN prelim, 4 rounds, Welterweight
Joel Iriarte (1-0, 1KO), Bakersfield, California, 146 pounds
Kevin Beltran Aguirre (5-2, 2 KOs), Zihuatanejo, Mexico, 143 pounds

10 rounds, Light Heavyweight
Kareem Hackett (12-0, 6 KOs), Toronto, Canada, 174.8 pounds
Rowdy Legend Montgomery (10-5-1, 7 KOs), Victorville, California, 170 pounds

4 rounds, Super Middleweight
Jose Mancilla (pro debut), Big Bear, California via Tenancingo, Mexico, 170.6 pounds
Rueben Johnson (0-5, 0 KOs), Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 168.4 pounds

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for The Ring and vice president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Follow @JakeNDaBox

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