Robeisy Ramirez is ready to show the lessons he has learned from the pain of his second defeat when on Saturday he fights Brandon Leon Benitez.
Cuba’s Ramirez, 30, will fight for the first time since December, when he sacrificed the WBO featherweight title when losing via majority decision to Rafael Espinoza in one of the most exciting fights of 2023.
In the 26-year-old Benitez, at the James L. Knight Center in Miami Beach, Ramirez will fight another Mexican opponent, and similarly to when he lost for the first time, to Adan Gonzales, and later avenged that defeat before becoming a world champion, he is determined to respond by showing the extent to which failing has forced him to improve.
“It was definitely a learning experience,” Ramirez said. “I learned from that fight that when you don’t do things the right way, you don’t get the result you’re looking for, you know? That’s why, for this fight, we focused on being mentally and physically ready, because when you don’t have any of those, the boxing or skills don’t come out in the fight, and that’s basically what happened.
“[Benitez is] a Mexican fighter, so I know what he’s coming to do. He’s coming to get in a war. I’m not really focused on what he does well. I focus on what he doesn’t do well, and that’s what I’ve based my strategy on.
“I don’t have an idea of [after this fight, promoter Top Rank’s] plans. I like to take things day by day, and right now I’m focused only on what’s in front of me, and then we’ll think about what’s next after this fight. If it’s the rematch [with Espinoza], it’s the rematch. If it’s one of the other champions, then so be it. But right now I’m just focused on looking great on June 29.”
Ramirez was asked if his trainer Ismael Salas had spoken to him about the process of rebuilding Jorge Linares’ career after Linares, similarly, had suffered damaging defeats, and he said: “We didn’t really discuss anything about the example from Jorge Linares. I know his career, but I try to focus mostly on the day to day. What happened is in the past. Now I’m focused on what’s going to happen in this fight.
“I have a great relationship with Salas. We discuss various topics, not only sports. We discuss different topics, and I’m really happy that I have him with me, because he’s not only a good trainer, he’s also a good person, and he treats his fighters like his sons.”