It was the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, and one of the first truly big fights seen after the pandemic as the event was held at the Virgin Hotels in Paradise, Nevada in front of a limited capacity crowd, as signaled the end of the “Top Rank Bubble” we had grew accustomed to during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ramirez and Taylor were both promoted by Top Rank Inc. but took different paths to this fight. Ramirez defeated Amir Imam for the vacant WBC title at Madison Square Garden, and then went to Maurice Hooker’s home state of Texas, facing the WBO junior welterweight champion on DAZN, in which Ramirez stopped Hooker to unify the titles.
Taylor went through the gauntlet of the World Boxing Super Series, defeating Ivan Baranchyk for the IBF junior welterweight title and winning the WBA title from Regis Prograis in the finals.
These were the consensus two best fighters in the division in 2021, and it all led to a primetime fight on ESPN, with Jack Catterall agreeing to a step-aside deal for this undisputed fight to happen.
The bout saw an evenly contested fight decided by two knockdowns scored by Josh Taylor that edged the fight, as all three judges scored it 114-112, which would have been a draw if Ramirez was not knocked down twice.
Per CompuBox, Taylor landed 145 out of 530 punches and Ramirez landed 134 out of 584.
Taylor
With the win, Taylor became the second undisputed world champion from Scotland joining Ken Buchanan. This would also serve as the opposite of what is expected. This looked to be the crowning of a new king in the sport of boxing but instead proved to be the apex mountain for Taylor, who sat out for the rest of the year.
When he returned Taylor got a dodgy split-decision win over Jack Catterall, early in 2022, and now is scheduled to face Teofimo Lopez in June of this year. In short, Taylor became an undisputed champion, and suddenly all the hard fights caught up with him. Now he is fighting as infrequently as ever - and we have yet to see how he will return to the ring.
Though one could argue that the Taylor v. Prograis was the greatest night of Taylor’s life, it seems that the night he defeated Jose Ramirez to become a four-belt undisputed champion at the 140-lbs division punched his ticket to the hall-of-fame and created the iconic image of him that will last the test of time.
Ramirez
The loss hurt Ramirez as not just did he look to take his career to the next level Ramirez was looking to push social movements and agendas forward on a global level. The loss seemingly confined him to the space he had previously been at a great regional draw, but someone the world-at-large didn’t have to follow. The point of this fight was to create a modern boxing superstar.
Since the loss to Taylor, Ramirez has fought twice, defeating Jose Pedraza and Richard Commey. Now it seems uncertain Ramirez's future as it appears the 2012 Olympian from Avenal, California is now looking at the most finically fruitful fights as much as he is looking at what will add to his career.
A Career Of Hard Fights
Both fighters spent many years locked into grueling battles, and after their undisputed bout, it seems as though all those wars are catching up to them. Though neither fighter is done - neither is the same as they were in the 2019-2021 stretch either, which is a bit shocking since that wasn’t that long ago.
Time moves quickly, and it does so even faster in the sport of boxing which is unforgiving.
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