Big fight ‘downgraded’ on Ramirez-Billam-Smith card

This Saturday hosts the latest installment of the ‘Riyadh Season’, with Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez clashing with Chris Billam-Smith in a battle for the unified cruiserweight world titles. Just days before the pair meet, a bout on their undercard has received a significant update.

As is the case in the main event, each contest on the ‘Latino Night’ ticket features a fighter of Latino heritage, with the likes of Oscar Collazo, William Zepeda and Oscar Duarte all scheduled to appear on the card.

But in one of the event’s closest affairs, two Latinos will go head-to-head as Jose Carlos Ramirez and Arnold Barboza Jr. meet in a clash that will likely give the victor a world title sometime in 2025 – or so it was thought.

The fight between Ramirez and Barboza Jr. was scheduled to be a 12-round contest in an eliminator for the WBO super-bantamweight title, with Barboza currently holding the WBO Inter-Continental belt and positioned as the mandatory challenger for Teofimo Lopez’s world title – which he has demanded to fight in the of 2024.

However, it has now been confirmed that Barboza has refused to pay the WBO’s sanction fees due to frustrations with the WBO, which has yet to enforce his mandatory shot against Lopez.

The Jose Ramirez-Arnold Barboza fight has been downgraded from a 12-round title eliminator to a 10-rounder. Barboza told @DAZNBoxing that he had no interest in paying @WorldBoxingOrg penalty fees citing the WBO’s refusal to mandate his title shot.

— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) 13 November 2024