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He may not be the most popular Mexican boxer participating in a super middleweight world title fight this weekend, but WBO champ Gilberto Ramirez faces a big matchup on Friday night when he meets Jesse Hart for a rematch inside the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi.
How to Watch Ramirez vs Hart Online
For those in the United States looking to watch, the undercards start at 6:30 p.m. ET, the main card starts at 10 p.m. ET, and Ramirez vs. Hart is estimated to start around 11 p.m. ET.
The entire fight card can be watched live on your computer, phone or streaming device via ESPN+, the new cable-free streaming service that has coverage of sports not on the main ESPN channels.
You can sign up for a free 7-day trial of ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the fights on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app.
If you can’t watch live, ESPN+ will also have the fights available to be watched on-demand afterwards.
Ramirez vs Hart Preview
When Ramirez and Hart met back in September of 2017, the champion landed an early knockdown of Hart in the second round and continued to control most of the fight with power punches and big body shots. “Hard Work” fought back and made some noise during the final few rounds, but Ramirez stood his ground and ultimately left with the unanimous decision victory. Two judges scored the fight 115-112, while the third had it 114-113.
“I take nothing away from him. He’s the champ,” Hart said after the fight. “He’s a good champ. He has my respect. The knockdown was my fault. That was the difference in the fight. Zurdo’s a really good fighter.”
Since that battle, both have gone unblemished. Ramirez has made two more successful title defenses, beating Habib Ahmed via sixth-round TKO and taking down Roamer Alexis Angulo via unanimous decision in June.
Hart, meanwhile, has fought three times since the loss and scored a knockout in each one. He finished Thomas Awimbono in the first round, stopped Demond Nicholson in the seventh and made quick work of Mike Gavronski with a third-round TKO in August.
If Ramirez is able to get past Hart for a second time, he has his eyes on potential unification bouts in 2019.
“I want unification fights, but right now I’m focused on Jesse Hart, and after that we want to look at unification bouts. We want bigger fights,” he said.
As it stands, Callum Smith is the WBA “super” champ, while David Benavidez holds the WBC title and Jose Uzcategui is the interim IBF champ and will fight Caleb Plant for the real thing in January. Any of those opponents would make for a big fight, but Ramirez may have sights set on something even bigger.
“Canelo here is my title, come and get it,” he said in October.
Assuming Canelo Alvarez beats Rocky Fielding on Saturday night to claim the WBA “regular” super middleweight title, he’ll have some options for his next fight. He could stay at the division for a unification fight, which is where Ramirez–his compatriot–would come into play, or he could move back down to middleweight where he has other titles to defend.
Ramirez vs Canelo would certainly be compelling, as the former has the height and length to potentially bother the man many believe to be the best pound-for-pound pugilist in the world, but that could also be a reason Canelo opts to look elsewhere.
Either way, those are questions for the future. For now, Ramirez will have to focus on Hart. Because if it’s anything like the first bout, it’ll be a hard-fought battle in which he’ll get a significant test from the challenger.