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Mike CoppingerESPN
Robeisy Ramirez will make the first defense of his WBO featherweight title vs. Satoshi Shimizu on July 25 in Tokyo, promoter Top Rank announced on Thursday.
The 126-pound title bout will serve as chief support on ESPN+ for the highly anticipated showdown between Stephen Fulton and Naoya Inoue for Fulton’s unified 122-pound championship.
Ramirez, a two-time Olympic gold medalist from Cuba, captured the vacant title this month with a unanimous-decision victory over Isaac Dogboe. Ramirez (12-1, 7 KOs) rose to No. 6 in ESPN’s featherweight rankings and is poised for some big matchups in the action-packed division going forward.
“Fighting is what I do best, titles are meant to be defended and there’s no stopping ‘El Tren!,'” said Ramirez, 29.
Shimizu (11-1, 10 KOs), an Olympic bronze medalist from Japan, will be fighting for a world title for the first time at age 37.
Source: www.espn.com