Gilberto Ramirez is set for his Golden Boy Promotions debut.
The unbeaten former super middleweight titlist collides with Miami’s Sullivan Barrera (22-3, 14KOs) in the main event of Friday’s DAZN show live from Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles. Both boxers made weight for the light heavyweight bout, which tops a four-fight telecast beginning 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. local time.
Ramirez weighed 174.6 pounds for his first fight since signing with Golden Boy earlier this year. Barrera also checked in at 174.6 pounds for his first fight in more than two years.
The bout will be the third at light heavyweight for Ramirez, who held the WBO super middleweight title for nearly three years before moving up in 2019. In his most recent start, the 30-year-old southpaw from Mazatlan, Mexico scored a tenth-round stoppage of Alfonso Lopez last December in Galveston, Texas. The bout was his first after severing ties with Top Rank earlier that year.
Barrera has not fought since a ten-round points loss to Jesse Hart in June 2019. The Cuban export has lost two of his last three starts, including a twelfth-round, technical knockout to WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol in March 2018.
In the evening’s chief support, former IBF junior lightweight titlist Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz (31-1-1, 15KOs) moves up in weight to challenge Dominican Republic’s Javier Fortuna (36-2-1, 25KOs).
Both boxers made weight for their vacant WBC interim lightweight title fight. Diaz weighed 134.4 pounds, coming in well under the limit after missing weight ahead of his 12-round draw with Shavkat Rakhimov in their clash this past February. Fortuna tipped the scale at a well-distributed 134.8 pounds.
The winner will become the mandatory challenger to reigning WBC lightweight titlist Devin Haney (26-0, 15KOs).
Seniesa Estrada (20-0, 8KOs) aims to become a two-division champion as she faces Japan’s Tenkai Tsunami (28-12-1, 16KOs) for the WBO junior flyweight title.
Estrada weighed 108 pounds for her second straight title fight in as many weight divisions. The East LA native delivered a tour-de-force performance in dethroning long reigning WBA strawweight titlist Anabel Ortiz this past March 20 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Tsunami weighed 107.2 pounds as she attempts the fourth defense of her WBO title. The 36-year-old from Tokyo makes her U.S. debut, having previously fought eight times in The Americas—seven in Mexico and once in Chile, also ending in defeat.
Opening the four-fight DAZN show, Hector Tanajara and William Zepeda collide in a scheduled 10-round battle of unbeaten lightweights.
San Antonio’s Tanajara (19-0, 5KOs) came in right at the 135-pound limit for his first fight since the pandemic. The 24-year-old was previously due to face former 130-pound titlist Alberto Machado this past March but was forced to withdraw after testing positive for COVID.
Zepeda (22-0, 22KOs) weighed 134.2 pounds for his second straight fight in the U.S. The concussive-punching 25-year-old southpaw from San Mateo Atenco, Mexico has stopped each of his previous 12 opponents, including a fifth-round knockout of Roberto Ramirez in his U.S. debut last November at Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox