Jesus Ramos Jr. is ready to shine on Tank vs. Romero undercard

Jesus Ramos Jr. is looking to steal the show on the Tank vs. Romero undercard.

This Saturday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, Showtime presents a card that will be headlined by WBA lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis (26-0) going up against Rolando Romero (14-0). The undercard will feature Jesus Ramos Jr (18-0), a 21-year-old contender within the junior middleweight division.

Ramos Jr. is from Casa Grande, AZ, and he comes from a boxing family as his father (Jesus Ramos) trains him and his uncle (Abel Ramos 27-5-2) is still an active fighter in the welterweight division. While Ramos Jr. was a contender at welterweight, he was starting to have issues making the 147-pound weight limit which led him to move up to junior middleweight.

“I feel a lot better and stronger (referring to the new weight class). My training has gotten a lot better because, at 147, I would stop training two weeks out in order to start cutting the weight. Now, we are still going strong and making the weight easy. We are not stressed about it. The weird part was that it was easy to get to 151, but those last four pounds were really hard. I was struggling, so that’s when we decided that I needed to go to 154 because my body wouldn’t go down to 147 anymore,” Ramos Jr. told FanSided.

Ramos Jr. quickly made a name for himself at welterweight, so naturally, that buzz followed him when he moved up in weight class. How did life change for him during that time? Ramos Jr. told FanSided, “Life has changed a lot. I feel like I’ve matured. The journey that I have taken to get me where I’m at has made me into a more mature person and twenty-one-year-old.”

Gervonta Davis vs. Rolando Romero takes place on Showtime PPV 

Along with maturity, Ramos Jr. was dealing with being separated from his girlfriend (Dhamar) for a while since she is currently an active-duty member of the Marine Corps. That separation ended within the last 12 months as she was able to get a change of station orders back to Arizona. “My girlfriend was able to move back to Arizona, and she has been real supportive of me. Right now, I’m in Vegas for training camp, and it’s never easy, especially for her, my mom, siblings, and the rest of my family. They are with me during these tough times and the journey,” said the junior middleweight contender.

Speaking of Las Vegas, NV, training camp hasn’t always been there for Ramos Jr. He trained in Colorado’s high altitudes and experimented with the idea of training at home in Casa Grande, AZ. For this camp, Ramos Jr. and his team decided to split the time, with most of the focus coming from their time in Las Vegas.

“We did three weeks in Casa Grande and the other five here in Vegas. We felt like back home; there were a lot of distractions. It wasn’t anything necessarily bad it’s just that you have family inviting you to cookouts, and you’re staying up late. There are other worries too, but we have great sparring here in Vegas. All we do is box and train. Afterward, we come home, rest, go back for a training session, rest, and then go back for some more. We work out three times a day, so there isn’t much else to do but train and rest, which is how it should be when preparing for a fight,” Ramos Jr. told FanSided exclusively.

Since the stakes and visibility are a little higher, Ramos Jr. has added veteran strength and conditioning coach Larry Wade who has worked with former world champions like Shawn Porter and Caleb Plant. The increased level of training also comes from the fact that his opponent Luke Santamaria (13-2-1), faced his uncle back in February. Santamaria defeated Ramos Jr.’s uncle by unanimous decision, so there is a sense of revenge for him while preparing for this fight.

What does Ramos Jr. think of his opponent?

“He is a tough fighter and beat my uncle by decision which I disagreed with,” said Ramos Jr. “I felt like my uncle did more and landed more power shots. That’s in the past, now I have to fight him, and I am ready for whatever he brings to the table. I feel like he is chewing off more than he can handle because I’m a lot bigger than my uncle, and he (Omar) is a small welterweight.”

The training has been completed, and we are well within fight week. Lastly, Ramos Jr. discussed expectations for those that have never seen him fight and a peek into the future.

He told FanSided, “Right now, we are concentrating on Luke Santamaria and May 28th. If all goes well, I do want to stay active and look to fight four times this year. So, two more this year or maybe three, but that might be pushing it. We don’t fight as often since we have tougher opponents, which means tougher training camps, so we have to slow things down a bit.”

“Don’t miss this fight and card,” he said. “This fight has a good story as he beat my uncle, and now I’m coming for revenge. Luke Santamaria is a good fighter, and I hope he is training to the best of his abilities so that we can give the fans a good show.”