Robeisy Ramirez was a two-time, two-weight Olympic gold medallist; but even to turn professional he faced an arduous, frightening journey to escape from Cuba. He took on Isaac Dogboe for the WBO featherweight world title on Sunday April 2nd.
Strangely, Ramirez went into hiding and, when he lost his pro debut in a significant surprise, his boxing career nearly wrecked before it began. After the fight on Sunday, Ramirez beat the Ghanaian Isaac Dogbe in the gruelling bout to come out on top for the title.
Ramirez had lost his most memorable ace fight to Adan Gonzales in 2019, and according him, it was an huge bombshell. That loss was caused by the time he spent hiding, when he didn’t train or spar, and by the months of uncertainty he had been trying to find his way in the United States. But he recuperated and beat Gonzales when they met a second time in 2020.
“I wrote an important chapter of my life with my amateur career. But the most important pages of that story are yet to be written and will be written as a professional fighter,” the Cuban boxer said after the fight against Dogbe.
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“This is what every professional fighter aspires to, vying for and winning the world title. Definitely it’s what a boxer dreams of. For me, I see it as a first and very important step to better and bigger things, more important fights, including unification fights down the line.”
Cuba dominates the Olympic boxing competition. However, the system doesn’t permit its fighters to leave the country. It meant that Ramirez had to make a slow, risky attempt to defect to America after escaping from a training camp in Mexico.
“That was a very difficult six months of my life. There was an element of fear, it was an arduous road to the US for the first time. I was in hiding then I moved,” he said.
“At that point, believe it or not, I heard there was a drug cartel after me. It was very difficult. So I had to be in hiding for the most part. Then I started getting a little bit more comfortable and adapting.
“Finally made it to the US but in summary it was a very difficult time in my life, coping with so many changes, different culture and different place and just the element of uncertainty.”
Meanwhile, Dogboe’s incredible record brought him back into contention for the world title. But he has his own ambitions. He is a warrior who uses heavy punch combinations and is a powerful aggressor. He was humiliated when he lost to Emanuel Navarrete and lost his super-bantamweight title.
In spite of that, he is the professional with more experience. Following his second loss to Navarrete, he moved up to featherweight, teamed up with trainer Barry Hunter, and has continued to find ways to win, defeating Chris Avalos, Adam Lopez, Christopher Diaz, and Joet Gonzalez in his last four fights. Dogbe describes himself as a ‘fighting man’.
“I want to be in one of the great fights. So when the historians are talking about professional boxing, super-bantamweights and featherweights, they’ll mention my name as well.” he said before the bout.
However, the Ghanaian did make a few errors that cost him the fight, but he did not give up.
Ramirez, on the other hand, was confident that his true potential would emerge. Naturally, it did so last year when he stopped Eric Donovan, Abraham Nova, and Jose Matias Romero, and he was very excited about fighting Isaac Dogbe. Indeed, Dogbe stated prior to the fight that the contest could be the ‘fight of the year’.
