Abel Ramos has a new opponent and platform on which the fight will take place.
BoxingScene.com has learned through multiple sources that Josesito Lopez has suffered an injury and was forced to withdraw from his planned welterweight fight with Ramos. The two were due to collide as part of a Fox Sports Pay-Per-View show on February 5 from Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas.
Ramos will remain on card itself, though bumped down to earlier in the evening. The former title challenger will now face Lucas Santamaria (12-2-1, 7KOs) in a scheduled ten-round welterweight bout that will headline a Fox telecast preceding the four-fight PPV event. Replacing Ramos on the PPV portion is his nephew, rising junior middleweight contender Jesus Ramos (17-0, 14KOs) who faces spoiler Vladimir Hernandez (13-4, 6KOs).
ESPN.com boxing insider Mike Coppinger was the first to break the story.
Abel Ramos (27-4-2, 21KOs) was originally due to face Lopez (38-8, 21KOs) in a WBC welterweight semifinal eliminator. That status is likely no longer in play, as Santamaria is not ranked in the Top 15 of the WBC or any of the other sanctioning bodies. The 24-year-old Santamaria does enter, however, on the heels of a convincing ten-round, unanimous decision win over former two-division titlist Devon Alexander last August in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Ramos has not fought since last May 1, where he claimed a sixth-round stoppage of former lightweight titlist Omar Figueroa as part of a Fox Sports PPV from Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. The bout was his first since coming up short in his vacant WBA “World” welterweight title fight with Yordenis Ugas, who claimed a twelve-round, split decision in their September 2020 fight.
Aside from the Ramos family trading places next Saturday, the rest of the card remains intact.
Headlining the PPV, former unified welterweight titlist Keith Thurman (29-1, 22KOs) returns from a 30-plus month ring absence to face former secondary junior welterweight titleholder Mario Barrios (26-1, 17KOs) in a twelve-round WBC welterweight semifinal eliminator. Also on the PPV, former four division titlist Leo Santa Cruz (37-2-1, 19KOs) faces Keenan Carbajal (23-2-1, 15KOs), while former two-division titlist Luis Nery (31-1, 24KOs) collides with unbeaten contender Carlos Castro (27-0, 12KOs) in a scheduled ten-round junior featherweight contest.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox