By: Hans Themistode

At the age of 28, unified super lightweight world champion Jose Ramirez already has plenty of big fights under his belt. In roughly one month, he’ll add another when he takes on fellow unified titlist Josh Taylor in an undisputed contest.

Like all of his fights, Ramirez is placing all of his focus on the man standing in front of him. With that said, Ramirez is watching undisputed lightweight titlist, Teofimo Lopez, through his peripheral vision.

The audacious 23-year-old has said on numerous occasions that he fully intends on moving up in weight to take on the winner between Ramirez and Taylor. He also expects Taylor to walk away from their contest with all four world titles wrapped around his waist.

While Ramirez doesn’t have an issue with his prediction, he believes he knows why Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs) is siding with Taylor.

“I heard him say that he believes Taylor is going to win,” said Ramirez during an interview with FightHype.com. “But there’s a difference between what he believes and who he wants. He might have a reason why he’s saying that. He might feel that Taylor is an easier fight for him than I am.”

From the moment Lopez upset the odds and dethroned Vasiliy Lomachenko to claim every world title in the 135-pound division late last year, the Brooklyn native announced to the world that he would immediately look to become a two-time undisputed world champion. In spite of that, Lopez is also under the impression that whether Ramirez wins or loses, that he’ll ultimately move up to the welterweight division.

Admittedly, a move to 147 pounds has been on the mind of Ramirez (26-0, 17 KOs). However, if Lopez continues to put words in his mouth, then the unified belt holder will elect to stick around a bit longer.

“The more he says that I’m going to move up to 147 and speak on my behalf, the more I’m going to stay at 140. I might stay at 140 just to face him. I’m not afraid of Teofimo Lopez at all man. I’ve been in this weight class almost my whole career but that Teofimo fight is starting to sound more interesting. It’s starting to really excite me.”

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