{"id":616716,"date":"2026-04-20T14:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T14:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/616716\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T14:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T14:58:14","slug":"estephan-albert-ramirez-and-imam-khataev-are-coming-after-beterbiev-bivol-and-benavidez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/616716\/","title":{"rendered":"Estephan: Albert Ramirez and Imam\u00a0Khataev\u00a0are ‘Coming After’\u00a0Beterbiev, Bivol and Benavidez\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

The light heavyweight division is fast approaching a new era as the four belts start to diverge following a brief back and forth of the undisputed title between Dmitry Bivol and Artur\u00a0Beterbiev\u00a0in 2024 and 2025.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the landscape slows shifts at 175 pounds, Venezuelan knockout artist Albert Ramirez has\u00a0largely gone\u00a0under-the-radar to work himself into a position as the WBA interim title holder. Bivol currently holds the world title with the\u00a0WBA, while\u00a0Benavidez is the regular champion, effectively making Ramirez the\u00a0first\u00a0and second in line for either title.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the ground could\u00a0shift again at 175 pounds as Benavidez moves to cruiserweight to challenge WBA and WBO world champion Gilberto Ramirez on May 2<\/a>, and Bivol will defend his IBF,\u00a0WBA\u00a0and WBO light heavyweight belts against little-known German contender Michael Eifert in Ekaterinburg on May 30<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s so close from a fight with the big names.\u201d Camille Estephan, Ramirez\u2019s promoter, said exclusively to Boxing Social. \u201cBeterbiev, Bivol, [David] Benavidez. We want one of these guys. But we need to get\u00a0through\u00a0Richards\u00a0first. I met him and his team and they\u00a0seemed\u00a0very serious.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0a great fighter. So,\u00a0I think it\u00a0is a hell of a main event.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ramirez (22-0, 19 KOs) will first have to overcome England\u2019s\u00a0Lerrone\u00a0Richards in the rescheduled headliner at Montreal Casino on June 4 promoted by Estephan\u2019s Eye of the Tiger<\/a>. The 33-year-old is in impressive form, stopping his last four\u00a0opponents, including\u00a0Adam Deines and against Jerome\u00a0Pampellone\u00a0in his most recent bout\u00a0last August.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBivol is fighting\u00a0Eifert,\u00a0and I hear that after this fight they might\u00a0do\u00a0the third\u00a0Beterbiev\u00a0fight,\u201d Estephan said\u00a0regarding\u00a0the state of the light heavyweight division. \u201cBenavidez has temporarily moved\u00a0up but\u00a0he\u00a0has said that he wants to\u00a0come back down and\u00a0keep campaigning at 175.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Estephan threw his other light heavyweight contender into the mix without any prompt. Imam\u00a0Khataev\u00a0will also\u00a0feature on the undercard\u00a0of Ramirez\u2019s bill,\u00a0with an opponent yet to be announced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Estephan and Khataev at a show in Montreal. Photo Credit: Eye of the Tiger<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of these three guys for us,\u201d Estephan\u00a0said\u00a0in regard to\u00a0Bivol,\u00a0Beterbiev\u00a0and Benavidez. \u201cIn Ramirez and\u00a0Khataev, we are going to come after them, and we are going to take one of their titles away from them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Russian 31-year-old was unfortunate to be on the wrong side of a split-decision loss to David Morrell on the Shakur Stevenson vs William Zepeda undercard last July. However,\u00a0\u00a0Khataev\u00a0(11-1, 10 KOs) bounced back with a\u00a0third-round\u00a0stoppage against Deines five months ago, to find himself ranked in third place for the IBF title and is also sat in fifth position for the WBC belt.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The light heavyweight division is fast approaching a new era as the four belts start to diverge following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[37207,13042,703,49,48,13038,13037,231761,82],"class_list":["post-616716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-albert-ramirez","tag-artur-beterbiev","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-david-benavidez","tag-dmitry-bivol","tag-imam-khataev","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}