For Gilberto Ramirez, Yuniel Dorticos is due and then Jai Opetaia could be next

Gilberto Ramirez has unified two world titles at cruiserweight, but he has an obligation to take care of before he can go for a third.

That obligation? Mandatory challenger Yuniel Dorticos, who sits in the No. 1 slot in the WBA’s rankings. He’s been in and out of that position over the years but has otherwise remained there without interruption since November 2022.

During that time, Dorticos was due for a shot at Arsen Goulamirian. But Goulamirian was inactive from November 2022 until March 2024, and when he returned it was for a fight with Ramirez. Goulamirian had to request permission from the WBA to face Ramirez instead of Dorticos. And while Dorticos’ team voiced their opposition, the WBA approved Goulamirian vs. Ramirez.

Ramirez defeated Goulamirian via unanimous decision in March to win the WBA title. And he added the WBO belt earlier this month with a win over Chris Billam-Smith in a unification bout. Ramirez is now 47-1 (30 KOs).

Dorticos (27-2, 25 KOs) hasn’t been overly active in the interim. The 38-year-old from Cuba (and now living in Miami) has fought just three times, all against unheralded opposition, since losing his IBF title via majority decision to Mairis Briedis in September 2020. 

There was a 14-month layoff before his November 2021 win over Jesse Bryan. He spent another 13 months away before a December 2022 victory over Deibis Berrocal. And then it was nearly a year and a half before Dorticos took out Alan Campa in June 2024.

Nevertheless, it looks like Dorticos may finally be up next.

“The preliminary plan is to take care of the mandatory,” said Eric Gomez, president of Golden Boy Promotions, in a recent interview on Dan Rafael’s Fight Freaks Unite podcast. “We’ll start getting into those discussions. Zurdo’s taking some time off, well-deserved. But yeah, we do have a mandatory with Dorticos that we’re going to have to address. And that’s the preliminary plan, is [to] take care of the mandatory and then see if we can do the unification, which is a fight that would pit the two top fighters in that division.”

The other top fighter, of course, is the lineal champion and IBF titleholder, Jai Opetaia.

Opetaia has his own mandatory defense coming up; he will face Huseyin Cinkara on January 8.

Opetaia initially won the IBF title and the lineal championship after defeating Mairis Briedis in July 2022. He made one defense of the IBF belt and then vacated it in order to face Ellis Zorro in December 2023. Opetaia wound up rematching Briedis this May, with the vacant IBF title on the line, and won another unanimous decision. He defended it in October with a sixth-round TKO of Jack Massey.

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2 and @UnitedBoxingPod. He is the co-host of the United Boxing Podcast. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.