The light-welterweight champion, perhaps the most politically active boxer since Muhammad Ali, on his activism, his upbringing and his upcoming unification fight against Josh Taylor
José Ramírez has been described as the most politically active boxer since Muhammad Ali and, in his riveting company, it does not take long to understand there is depth and truth to a statement that might initially sound like a snappy soundbite. Ramírez, the WBC and WBO light-welterweight world champion, fights Scotland’s Josh Taylor, who holds the IBF and WBA titles, in a fascinating unification contest in Las Vegas on Saturday night. The winner will become boxing’s only current undisputed world champion. Ramírez knows the challenge he faces against Taylor, and believes he will prevail, but we begin with the reasons for his activism.
Ramírez is an American of Mexican descent and his ethnicity and family’s roots have shaped his political outlook. He explains that, in 2007, when he was 14, he still lived in Avalon, a little town in the central valley of California. This belt of land supplies more than half of the fruit and vegetables the entire US consumes every year. But people here are poor. They are mostly Mexican. José knew the back-breaking work people did on the surrounding farms, picking crops. He wanted new trainers but he didn’t want to ask his parents for money. So he found himself a job in the school vacation.
Related: Josh Taylor: ‘I was always smaller than everyone … I would fight them straight away’
‘I’m not a politician who has to play his cards right. I can speak the truth’