Maurice Hooker vs. Jose Ramirez For Unified 140-Pound Titles Set For July 27 On DAZN
While the World Boxing Super Series has its own junior welterweight title unification in the coming months, the division’s lone two titleholders not in the tournament will face each other this summer.
WBO champion Maurice Hooker and WBC champion Jose Ramirez will clash in a title unification on July 27. The fight will take place at College Center Park in Arlington, Texas, Hooker’s home state, and will be streamed on DAZN in the United States.
The fight would culminate a near year-long rivalry between the two titleholders as both men had publicly stated their interest in fighting each other. Hooker had been interested in fighting Ramirez even before Hooker’s first title defense which took place last November in Oklahoma.
Hooker defeated Alex Saucedo last year on ESPN in his first defense and proceeded to call out Ramirez in the middle of the ring, inviting the WBC champion to fight him on DAZN. Hooker’s last fight saw him dominate Mikkel LesPierre in March in Verona, New York on DAZN. Prior to the fight against LesPierre, Hooker told Fightful in an exclusive interview that he hoped to defend his title in Texas this summer, but wasn’t entirely sure if he was facing Ramirez next, believing fights against the top names at 140 pounds would come in 2020.
Ramirez has held the WBC title since March 2018 when he won a 12-round decision against Amir Imam at Madison Square Garden. Since then, Ramirez has successfully defended the title twice: once against Antonio Orozco in September 2018 and once against Jose Zepeda this past February, both fights taking place in Fresno, California. Both Hooker and Ramirez are ranked in the top four on Fightful’s rankings at junior welterweight, which can be seen at this link.
The two sides have been negotiating a fight deal between the two after Hooker’s fight against LesPierre, with Ramirez confirming such talks were taking place several weeks back.
This would be the first of two potential title unification fights at 140 pounds taking place this year. Aside from Hooker vs. Ramirez for the unified WBO and WBC titles, there will be a unification bout for the WBA and IBF titles between Regis Prograis and Josh Taylor. That fight, which is also the finals of the World Boxing Super Series junior welterweight tournament, currently does not have a date or venue announced, but it is expected to take place later this year.
A fight between the two future unified champions would crown the first undisputed junior welterweight champion since Terence Crawford walked away with all four titles after a win against Julius Indongo in 2017.
