On Saturday, March 30, WBA cruiserweight titleholder Arsen Goulamirian (27-0, 19 KOs) will make his U.S. fighting debut to defend his hardware against former super middleweight titlist Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (45-1, 30 KOs).

Ramirez will be hoping to score a record as he aspires to become the first Mexican to become a cruiserweight beltholder. The 12-round fight is presented by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Y12 Boxing and will take place at YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park in Inglewood and broadcast live on DAZN.

“I am excited to fight for the first time in the United States, and of all places Los Angeles,” said Arsen Goulamirian. “There are no excuses now. I know Zurdo wants to be a world champion, but he’s going to have to go through me first. I will successfully defend my belt this March 30!”

Goulamirian, rated at No. 7 by The Ring at cruiserweight, will be returning to action after a 14-month hiatus following his defense against Aleksei Egorov back in Nov. 2022. He will be defending the belt he took from Ryad Mehry back in 2018 and which he has defended already a total of four times since then, with all of those title bouts happening in Goulamirian’s adoptive country of France. He was born in Yerevan, Armenia.

“I’m back! And I’m ready to become the first Mexican cruiserweight champion. When I made the move to this division, I had my eyes set on Arsen and I can’t wait to showcase my skills in the ring,” said Zurdo Ramirez. “I feel extremely comfortable at this weight class and will look to become the undisputed champion.”

The 26-year-old southpaw Ramirez is coming off a dominant points win over Joe Smith Jr. back in Oct. 2023, which followed a failed bid to wrestle the light heavyweight title from the hands of Dmitry Bivol back in  2022. Ramirez held the WBO super middleweight belt between 2016 when he took the belt from Arthur Abraham until 2018 when he relinquished it after five defenses to make a jump to the 175-pound division.

“There has never been a Mexican world champion in both the super middleweight and cruiserweight divisions, but ‘Zurdo’ has always been special, and I fully expect him to walk away with the WBA belt on March 30,” said Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya. “On the heels of being the first Mexican super middleweight titlist, Zurdo can now do the same in the cruiserweight division. With all of this motivation, I would expect a knockout — and a spectacular one.

A press release by Golden Boy Promotions was used in this article.