This past Friday, Dan Rafael reported that cruiserweight contender Robin Safar’s planned January 16th bout against Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez was off, with Ramirez potentially skipping the date entirely
in favor of going right into his blockbuster showdown with David Benavidez on May 2nd.
The following day, FightsATW caught up with Safar and his manager at the Jack vs Mikaelian 2 show in L.A.
“After my last fight, I came out with an injury on my knuckle in my right hand,” said Safar. “We’ve been talking about pushing the date to February on the undercard of the Ryan Garcia fight. It would be amazing if that can be. If I don’t get that fight, there are obviously a lot more opportunities that I could get. I want to fight for a title eliminator. I want to become a world champion. There are a lot of names out there that I want to fight so I’m taking it day by day.”
Mike Coppinger has since confirmed the news.
If Ryan Garcia’s title shot against Mario Barrios does indeed go down on February 21st, that would give Ramirez (48-1, 30 KO) just over two months to recuperate and prepare for “El Bandera Roja.” Doesn’t strike me as the wisest move; Safar (19-0, 13 KO) is competent enough to at least make Ramirez work for it and every minute in the ring is another minute where some freak injury could happen.
