Hand injury forces Gilberto Ramirez off Crawford-Postol undercard

Jul

WBO super middleweight titleholder Gilberto Ramirez was forced to withdraw from his July 23 bout on the Terence Crawford-Viktor Postol undercard due to a hand injury, advisor Sean Gibbons confirmed to RingTV early Wednesday afternoon.

Top Rank first made the announcement through their social media accounts.

Ramirez was scheduled to defend his title against Dominik Britsch at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on the HBO Pay-Per-View undercard of the Crawford-Postol junior welterweight championship.

Ramirez, who resides in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico and trains in the Los Angeles area, won the WBO 168-pound title with a one-sided win over Arthur Abraham on April 9.

According to Gibbons, Ramirez (34-0, 26 knockouts) injured his right hand during sparring on Tuesday night.

Ramirez landed a punch and instantly felt pain shoot through his hand.

“Gilberto ended up tearing ligaments in his right knuckle,” Gibbons told RingTV.com.

Ramirez, who is a southpaw, is scheduled to have surgery this Friday.

Dr. Steven Shin will perform the surgery on Ramirez. Shin is the same physician who removed bone spurs from the left hand of Felix Verdejo last year.

The 25-year-old Ramirez could return to the ring later this fall.

As of now, three fights make up the HBO Pay Per View broadcast. No word yet from Top Rank whether a non-televised bout will replace the Ramirez-Britsch fight.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, Boxingscene.com, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing