Gilberto Ramirez entered fight week confident that his next fight will be for a light heavyweight title.

A win on Saturday will put the unbeaten former WBO super middleweight titlist in contention, as Ramirez is set to face Germany’s Dominic Boesel in a WBA light heavyweight title eliminator. Both boxers made weight for their scheduled 12-round main event, which streams live on DAZN from Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.

Mazatlan, Mexico’s Ramirez (43-0, 29KOs) weighed 174.8 pounds, well within his range since moving up from super middleweight more than three years ago. Boesel (32-2, 12KOs) checked in at 174.2 pounds for his U.S. debut, aiming to remain unbeaten on the road (6-0, 2KOs in fights outside of Germany).

The winner will become the mandatory challenger to WBA light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol (20-0, 11KOs), who is just days removed from a twelve-round, unanimous decision win over four-division champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (57-2-2, 39KOs).

Boesel and Ramirez are presently number-one and number-two in the current WBA rankings at light heavyweight. Ramirez fights for the third time since signing with Golden Boy Promotions last spring. In his most recent outing, the Mexican southpaw scored a tenth-round stoppage of Yunieski Gonzalez last December 18 in San Antonio, Texas.

Saturday’s fight marks Boesel’s first since barely edging countryman Robin Krasniqi via split decision, avenging a knockout defeat just two fights prior to their rematch last October.

The evening’s chief support pits streaking lightweight contender William Zepeda (25-0, 23KOs) in a scheduled ten-round bout with former secondary WBA junior lightweight titlist Rene Alvarado (32-11, 21KOs) who moves up in weight. Zepeda was a fighting fit 134.4 pounds for his second fight of 2022, while Alvarado—who suffered three straight defeats in 2021—weighed a career-heaviest 134.6 pounds for his lightweight debut.

Below are the weights for the rest of the DAZN undercard, which begins at 8:00 pm ET/5:00 pm PT.

John Ramirez (9-0, 7KOs), Los Angeles, 114.6 pounds vs. Jan Salvatierra (8-1, 4KOs) Los Cabos, Mexico, 114.6 pounds—8 rds, junior bantamweight

Katsuma ‘El Cueto Japonecito’ Akitsugi (9-0, 1KO), Hollywood via Wakayama, Japan, 124.6 pounds vs. Jose Santos (23-9-1, 13KOs), Guadalajara, 125.8 pounds—10 rds, featherweight

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for krikya360.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox