Former two-belt champion Jose Carlos Ramirez (pictured) has turned down a chance to regain a world title against Regis Prograis. Unfortunately, Ramirez has preemptively pulled out of the world title fight without even attempting to negotiate an agreeable purse. Instead, Ramirez has already planned out an easier fight for March in his hometown of Fresno, California. The story, originally reported by ESPN's Mike Coppinger, was confirmed on social media by Ramirez's manager Rick Mirigian. Ramirez held the WBC and WBO 140-pound titles from 2019-2021 but lost a unification fight vs. Josh Taylor. As the belts began to splinter away from Taylor in 2022, Ramirez was offered a shot at the vacant WBC title against Jose Zepeda, whom he had previously defeated in 2019. With its title vacant, the WBC ruled that if a purse bid was necessary, Ramirez and Zepeda would split the bid on a 50/50 bais. Ramirez, however, passed on the fight because he had a wedding planned. As a result, Ramirez's slot went to Prograis, and Prograis defeated Zepeda to become a two-time champion. The WBC, sympathetic to Ramirez's wedding plans, ordered Prograis to make his first defense against Ramirez, but since Prograis is now the reigning champion, the WBC said that if a purse bid was necessary, it would be split 65/35 in the champion's favor. This decision worked to Ramirez's benefit by 10%-- because the normal split is 75/25 in the champion's favor. Of course, the parties would have been free to negotiate a different arrangement for a period of time, usually thirty days, before any purse bid. Mirigian's tweets confirm Ramirez is not interested in negotiating with Prograis

 

PRIOR BOXINGTALK COVERAGE

 

OCT 8, 2022: According to the WBC, Jose Zepeda and Regis Prograis will clash for the vacant WBC 140-pound title on November 26th in a venue to be announced. New kid on the block MarvNation Promotions will be the promoter. The WBC belt became vacant on July 1st, when world champion Josh Taylor of Scotland relinquished the crown in lieu of a mandatory title defense against Zepeda. The WBC title fight was ordered on July 31st, and then sent to a purse bid on August 30th. MarvNation, founded and headed by Marvin Rodriguez, emerged as the winner, posting a $2.4 million bid to far outpace the rest of the field. The winning bid was nearly double that of TGB Promotions’ $1.2 million bid. 

 

Zepeda was originally due to fight former champion Jose Carlos Ramirez, whose own desire to challenge for a second title reign was affected by the delay in the belt becoming available.

Ramirez faced and defeated former two-division titlist Jose Pedraza in March, taking the fight with the intention of next challenging for the title ahead of his already scheduled October wedding. The timing of the order conflicted with his out-of-ring calendar, so Ramirez agreed to stand down and face the winner of the vacant title fight. Prograis steped in. He previously held the WBA title, claiming the belt in a sixth-round knockout of Kiryl Relilkh in April 2019 during the semifinal round of the World Boxing Super Series tournament. Prograis lost the belt to Taylor via majority decision in their October 2019 WBSS final in London, but has since won three straight.