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Golden Boy wins Santa Cruz-Terrazas purse bid

Fighters Network
31
May

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Golden Boy won the right to promote the WBC junior featherweight bout between Leo Santa Cruz and Victor Terrazas on Friday, with company representative Ramiro Gonzalez outbidding Zanfer Promotions, $526,000 to $451,000.

The WBC had mandated that a deal be negotiated by June 7, and Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer and company matchmaker Eric Gomez both confirmed that Gonzalez had indeed put in the winning offer.



“Ramiro is good,” said Gomez. “He’s, like, 4-0 in purse bids. He’s undefeated in purse bids. He’s our expert. He’s Golden Boy’s purse bid expert. You know what’s funny is that he has this little ritual. He has this medallion of the Virgin Mary, and he carries it with him. He’s Catholic and he’s a little superstitious. He carries that with him, and he goes in with his calculator.”

“Ramiro is the only guy that I know who goes into a purse bid with a calculator … and then, right before the purse bid, he has a candle, which he lights and then says a couple of prayers. And then, he goes in and wins. He wins. And he’s got no experience in purse bids. He’s a pro. Give him props, because he’s the best.”

Golden Boy President Oscar De La Hoya is equally awed by Ramirez.

“Ramiro is our secret weapon. He has no experience whatsoever, but he’s a purse bid guru,” said De La Hoya. “You know, he has this little ritual, and that little candle, and he wins purse bids. Nobody knows how. I’ve never heard anything like that.”

In his last fight, on the May 4 undercard of a unanimous decision by welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. over Robert Guerrero, Santa Cruz (24-0-1, 14 knockouts) debuted as a junior featherweight by dropping former 115-pound beltholder Alexander Munoz twice en route to a fifth-round TKO.

Asked if the Santa Cruz-Terrazas fight could end up on the Sept. 14 Showtime Pay Per View card of the mega bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Gomez said, “We don’t know yet.” Schaefer stated “when and where is just speculation” in an e-mail to RingTV.com.

“The obvious one would be to put it in September,” said Gomez. “But it could go anywhere. Richard’s out of town right now, so we’re waiting for him to come back and check it all out and discuss it.”

Munoz, who won his first 23 bouts by stoppage, was knocked out for the first time in his career by Santa Cruz, a 24-year-old from Rosemead, Calif.

Santa Cruz rose from the bantamweight division, where he won the IBF belt by unanimous decision over Vusi Malinga last June.

After facing Munoz, Santa Cruz had been mandated to challenge Terrazas (37-2-1, 21 KOs), whose promoter, Zanfer president Fernando Beltran, has close ties with Golden Boy rival Top Rank. In April, Terrazas won the belt vacated by Abner Mares, winning a split-decision over Cristian Mijares.

Photo by Ethan Miller-Gettyimages

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]

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