By Norm Frauenheim –
LAS VEGAS – Process and patience, routine and roadwork are at the beginning of any young fighter’s career. Jesus Ramos has done them all. Does them all. He’s made the weight and run the miles. The demanding lifestyle never changes a whole lot. Cheat the routine and you cheat the craft.
Ramos, a quiet 22-year-old, practices that craft, one he learned in the desert town of Casa Grande between Phoenix and Tucson. It’s a farming community known for some ancient Native American ruins. Mostly, it’s known for unforgiving summers. Phoenix is hot. Casa Grande is hell.
Ramos has emerged from that cauldron, tempered by an environment as unforgiving as his chosen profession. Try and cheat the desert at midday in July, and it’ll kill you. Cheat the craft, and it’ll beat you.
Place and profession, they are inseparable in Ramos, a fighter who seems to have an innate understanding of who he is, what he wants and what he can and can’t control in a game ruled by chaos. Break it all down, and it leaves only himself.
Perceptions change. Popularity moves up and down like mercury in thermometer. For Ramos, however, there’s the process, ongoing and now on the brink of another challenge Saturday night against experienced junior-middleweight contender Erickson Lubin in the co-main event on a Showtime pay-per-view card featuring Canelo Alvarez-versus-Jermell Charlo at T-Mobile Arena.
“I’m here to showcase my talent,’’ said Ramos (20-0, 16 KOs, who made weight Friday, tipping the scale at 153.4 pounds. “I’ve seen a lot of people say that I don’t have a lot of ring IQ.
“So, I’m looking to show that and other dimensions to my game. It’s going to be a new Jesus Ramos. It’s not really about exposing Lubin, but more about exposing my talent.’’
The new Jesus Ramos? More like the evolving Jesus Ramos. He’s just figuring out how good he is. He was called a prospect just a few months ago.
“Now, I think of myself as a contender,’’ he said.
So, too, does everybody else. His sudden emergence is the reason he’s featured in the last fight on the pay-per-view (5 pm PT/8 pm PT) before the Canelo-Charlo show. There’s a sense, a buzz about Ramos. He looks as if he’s the real deal, a future star in a game searching for new blood.
It’s appropriate, perhaps, that he’s on a card expected measure whether the game’s long-reigning star, Canelo, has begun to fade. That, however, is just one of the many things Ramos can’t control. He can only beat Lubin (25-2, 18 KOs), who was also at 153.4 pounds Friday.
Lubin praises Ramos. But he also warns that the Arizona fighter is getting ahead of himself in so-called eliminator bout expected to earn the winner a shot at a junior-middleweight title.
Lubin, now 27, was once a young lion. He was 22, confident and very sure of himself. But that’s when Charlo beat him, knocking him out in October 2017. History, Lubin promises, is about to repeat itself.
“I took the Jermell Charlo fight at 22 and Jesus Ramos is doing the same thing, daring to be great by fighting somebody like me,’’ Lubin said. “I know he comes ready to fight, but I feel history repeats itself in my favor.’’
Ramos doesn’t exactly think in terms of history. He’ll leave that to Canelo. For him, it’s more about the resume. He needs an impressive entry, one that would qualify him for a job, a role as a challenger for a middleweight title.
“It’s really important that I dominate, because Lubin is so tough’’ Ramos said. “He’s given guys like Stephen Fundora a lot of trouble. It would be a big statement, a big win for my resume.’’
It’d also be another answer to questions about Ramos’ IQ, within the ropes and outside of them. He’s always learning, a fundamental part of a never-ending process forged by place and profession.
