Robbie Ramirez will be ready to show what lessons he learned from the pain of his second defeat when he takes on Brandon Leon Benitez on Saturday.
Ramirez, 30, a native of Cuba, will be fighting for the first time since last December, when he vacated his WBO featherweight title after losing by majority decision to Rafael Espinoza in one of the most exciting fights of 2023.
Ramirez, who faces the 26-year-old Benitez at the James L. Knight Center in Miami Beach, will once again face a Mexican fighter. Just as he did when he lost his first fight to Adan Gonzalez and then avenged that defeat before becoming a world champion, Ramirez is determined to fight back by showing how failure has made him better.
“It was definitely a learning experience,” Ramirez said. “What I learned from that fight is that if you don't do it the right way, you're not going to get the results you want. So for this fight, I focused on being mentally and physically prepared, because if you're missing either of those, your boxing and your technique aren't going to show in the fight. And that's basically what happened.”
“[Benitez is] He's a Mexican warrior, so he knows what he's coming for. He's going to go to war. I don't really focus on what he's good at. I focus on what he's not good at and base my strategy around that.
“To me [after this fight, promoter Top Rank’s] Plans. I like to take things day by day and right now I'm just focusing on what's in front of me. And then after this fight I'll think about the next one. If it's a rematch, [with Espinoza]”A rematch. If it's against one of the other champions, that's fine, but right now I'm focused on giving my best performance on June 29.”
Asked if his trainer, Ismael Salas, had spoken with him about the process of rebuilding Linares' career after Linares' similarly brutal defeat, Ramirez replied: “We haven't had any specific discussions about the Linares example. I know about his career, but I try to focus mainly on day-to-day events. What happened is in the past. Right now I'm focused on what's going to happen in this fight.”
“I have a great relationship with Salas. We discuss a variety of topics, not just sports. We discuss a variety of topics. I'm really happy to have him with me because not only is he a great trainer, he's also a good person and he treats his fighters like sons.”
