Jose Ramirez, Josh Taylor bring championship boxing back to Las Vegas

The final press conference was cordial Thursday afternoon inside Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. WBC and WBO junior welterweight champion Jose Ramirez was calm and even complimentary of his opponent, WBA and IBF champion Josh Taylor, who returned the favor with praise of his own.

But when the questions concluded, tensions finally surfaced — culminating in a lengthy face-off and some chatter from Taylor.

“He looked a little bit nervous,” Taylor said afterward.

“He’s got a little loud mouth,” Ramirez retorted minutes later.

The gloves will do the talking Saturday night.

Ramirez (26-0, 17 knockouts) and Taylor (17-0, 13 KOs) will box Saturday at Virgin Hotels for all four belts and undisputed junior welterweight supremacy. The winner will become the fifth undisputed champion in the four-belt era and first since 2017, when Terence Crawford unified the 140-pound titles before moving up to 147 pounds.

Ramirez has the held the WBC title since March 17, 2018 and added the WBO title on July 27. 2019. Taylor claimed the WBA and IBF titles on Oct. 26, 2019. All four belts were on display at the hotel Thursday afternoon — along with the type of bravado that often accompanies fights of this magnitude.

“We have the best fight of the whole pandemic experience,” said Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, who promotes Ramirez and Taylor. “You don’t have to sell this fight. … a really true unified championship.”

Arum recalled the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic last spring and made mention of how Top Rank opted to promote fights without fans inside a sterile bubble at MGM Grand. Some cards were certainly more compelling than others. None more than the one in October that ended with Teofimo Lopez beating Vasiliy Lomachenko via decision to unify the 135-pound division.

But boxing is a spectator sport and, well, there weren’t many spectators on site.

This particular fight on Saturday will the first in Las Vegas to include paying spectators since the pandemic enveloped the city last March. Top Rank is expecting a crowd of about 1,000.

“We’re here,” Taylor said. “I’m very proud that I’m involved in such a big fight.”

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.