Sowing The Seeds

Jose Ramirez is defying his farming roots but, as Chris Walker discovers, they will always inspire the WBC super-lightweight champion.

- Chris Walker

THE children of Avenal don’t grow up to become boxers. The Central California town, an hour away from Fresno, is a close community with agriculture providing employment for many of the region’s natives. And while Jose Ramirez inherited the farming expertise of his father, Carlos, boxing that persuaded him to take a different path to his ancestors.

“I worked the farms, two summers, and it was hard,” reveals the WBC super-lightweight boss, talking to Boxing News after an afternoon training session ahead of Saturday’s (July 7) clash with Danny O’Connor. “I’ve respected my dad from the moment I can remember, but when you put yourself through what he’s been putting himself through for so many years then you realise just how much hard work he put in to help raise a family. Two summers, 10- to 12-hour days, every single day, and I felt it everywhere on my body. This is the work my dad has put in for so many years.”

An athletic child, Ramirez was proficient at both soccer and baseball, but the seasonal restrictions of those sports led him to the boxing gym. Although a farming life still beckoned for the teenage Ramirez, fighting was providing him with the same reassuring comfort that the fields of Avenal did to his father.

“My first fight, they gave me this big trophy, and that got me sucked in,” reflects a gleeful Ramirez as he recalls his first contest like a hot date. “After that I just kept winning and with every win came more opportunity. I got the chance to go onto the USA team pretty young and they selected me for the Olympic Games over in London [2012]. I was still very young but being around an event like that with some of the names that were there meant a whole lot to me, and I knew I was on the way to a very good boxer.”