With Luck in His Corner, Ramirez Gets a Title Shot

It took a sore head to end Juan Carlos Ramirez’s hopes of a world title.

A sore back has renewed them.

Ramirez was in a hotly contested fight against Luisito Espinoza for the World Boxing Council’s featherweight championship last August in El Paso when the fight was stopped in the 11th round because of an accidental head butt.

That left the decision to the judges, who awarded the victory to Espinoza. Two judges had Espinoza winning, 106-104, the other giving it to him, 105-104.

Ramirez grudgingly shook off his disappointment and looked for another route to the top.

He since has fought Angel Rosario, Jorge Reyes and Ricardo Medina and beaten all three in 10-round decisions. But his failure to score a knockout didn’t help his chances of getting another title fight.

Then, a little more than two weeks ago, Ramirez found himself in the title picture.

World Boxing Council super bantamweight champion Erik Morales was scheduled to fight Wayne McCullough tonight at the Las Vegas Hilton in a pay-per-view title bout. McCullough, however, injured his back in training and had to drop out.

Enter Ramirez, who will take a 17-1 record, with seven knockouts, into the ring tonight.

It won’t be easy for him. If Ramirez thought Espinoza was tough, wait until he sees the blinding speed and potent power of Morales (32-0, 26 knockouts), who has quickly become a rising star for promoter Bob Arum.

That Ramirez has knocked out only seven of his opponents doesn’t bode well for him, either. Seemingly without enough power of his own to stop Morales, he will have to survive over 12 rounds if he hopes to pull out a decision. No one has gone the distance against Morales since 1996.

Morales, of course, insists he is taking Ramirez seriously.

“He’s got the experience and he can be difficult,” Morales said. “But I am still hungry.”

ROYAL TREATMENT FOR PRINCE?

He may call himself a prince, but he is the king of the featherweight division.

Prince Naseem Hamed holds only the World Boxing Organization’s title, but his drawing power has made him the fighter everybody seems to want a piece of.

Morales certainly does.

So does Juan Manuel Marquez (28-1, 22 knockouts), who will fight Wilfredo Vargas (23-11, 18 knockouts) in Monday night’s main event at the Great Western Forum.

Marquez is Hamed’s mandatory challenger in the WBO.

Morales’ credentials have already been noted.

But Arum, in campaigning for a Morales-Hamed fight, has taken on another opponent--HBO.

Arum claims that, because the cable network has a contract with Hamed, it has become overly protective of him.

“They are acting like his promoter now,” Arum said. “They should be trying to put on the most competitive fights.”

Lou DiBella, an HBO vice president, disputes that charge.

“Tell Bob Arum he ought to work on trying to solve the problems in his sport and not worry about who we put Hamed in the ring with,” DiBella said.

“We can’t make any fighter get into the ring. But Hamed has had credible, competitive fights.”

His last match was against Paul Ingle, the European and Commonwealth champion who had a 21-0 record, with 15 knockouts. Hamed won on an 11th-round technical knockout.

“He was the best featherweight in all of Europe,” DiBella said of Ingle. “I make no apologies for who we put Hamed in the ring with. Do I believe we could make better fights with him? Yes.”

DiBella said he would like to see Hamed fight Espinoza, should Espinoza successfully defend his title against Cesar Soto on May 15 in El Paso.

John Jackson of Forum Boxing has another idea. He plans on going to the WBO convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on May 28, along with Marquez and Marquez’s manager, Nacho Beristain, to oppose an anticipated request by Hamed to allow him two additional defenses before making a mandatory defense.

“Our job is to convince them to do the right thing,” Jackson said. “And that is for them to tell Hamed that he must fight [Marquez] or go fight someplace else for someone else’s title. If they value their credibility, that’s what they should do.”

Marquez said that, at the convention, he will try to persuade Hamed to sign with him, “even if I have to punch him to make him do it.”

Said DiBella, “Marquez is an acceptable opponent to me, but no one outside of L.A. knows who he is.”

SHORT JABS

International Boxing Federation junior middleweight champion Fernando Vargas will defend against Raul Marquez, who formerly held that title, July 17 at Caesar’s Tahoe. . . . Former IBF middleweight and World Boxing Assn. super-middleweight champion Michael Nunn (53-4, 34 knockouts) will face former IBF light-heavyweight champion William Guthrie (24-1, 21 knockouts) Sunday in Minot, N.D. . . . Also on tonight’s Morales-Ramirez card in Las Vegas will be a World Boxing Assn. super-bantamweight title fight between Nestor Garza (33-1, 27 knockouts) and Carlos Barreto (12-0-1, nine knockouts), and a 10-round junior lightweight bout between Jorge Paez (62-12-4, 41 knockouts) and Augie Sanchez (21-1, 18 knockouts). . . . Also on Monday night’s Forum card will be bantamweights Rafael Marquez (16-1, 14 knockouts) against Angel Almena (14-3, nine knockouts). The first fight is at 7:15.