The vacant junior welterweight world title fight between Jose Ramirez and Amir Imam now has a date and venue: March 17 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in the main event of a Top Rank ESPN card.
Top Rank chairman Bob Arum made the unexpected announcement on Thursday as he was presiding over the final pre-fight media conference in advance of the bout between junior lightweight world titleholder Vasiliy Lomachenko and junior featherweight titlist Guillermo Rigondeaux, who is moving up two weight classes for a historic match that will mark the first time that two-time Olympic gold medal winners will fight as professionals. Lomachenko and Rigondeaux will meet in the main event on Saturday (ESPN, 9 p.m. ET) at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.
When Arum got to the point in the media conference that he wanted to talk about featherweight prospect Michael Conlan, Arum said Conlan's next fight would take place on March 17 -- St. Patrick's Day -- with Ramirez-Imam headlining the card.
"Not only is it St. Patrick's Day and Mick Conlan will be on the card, but it's gonna be a really interesting card because there'll be a vacant 140-pound championship -- my fighter, Top Rank's fighter, Jose Ramirez, a young kid from Fresno, against, listen to this, Don King's fighter, Amir Imam," Arum said. "So it'll be Arum and King going at each other in the Mecca of boxing. Don't miss it!"
Conlan, the blue chip prospect and two-time Irish Olympian, will face Argentina's Luis Fernando Molina (7-3-1, 2 KOs) in a six-round bout on the televised undercard.
Arum, who turns 86 on Friday, and King have been rivals for decades, though they are much more friendly these days than ever before. But it's been quite some time since they've done a significant fight together.
