Jose Ramirez delivered one of the most vicious knockouts of the year in his sixth-round TKO of Maurice Hooker on July 27 to be crowned the new unified WBO/WBC junior welterweight champion.
Well, Ramirez won't have to wait long to make his first title defense. On Tuesday, the WBO ordered a fight between Ramirez and mandatory challenger Jack Catterall.
According to the governing body, it was outlined via an email July 8 that the winner of the Ramirez-Hooker fight must face the mandatory challenger — Catterall — "within 120 days after the bout (Hooker vs. Ramirez), the mandatory challenger to be designated by the WBO committee" and that "the parties have 30 days upon the receipt of this letter to negotiate and reach an agreement regarding the WBO junior welterweight championship contest between champion Mr. Jose Ramirez and mandatory challenger Mr. Jack Catterall."
It didn't take long for Catterall to respond to the news, as the British boxer took to his Twitter account to unleash his excitement.
A date and possible location for the fight will be part of those negotiations.
The 26-year-old Catterall (24-0, 13 KOs) is coming off an April knockout of Oscar Amador and will try to make Ramirez's unified title reign a short one.
The undefeated Ramirez (25-0, 17 KOs), who's also 26, has been coming into his own with decision victories over Antonio Orozco and Jose Zepeda leading up to his TKO victory over Hooker last month.
Over on the other side of the junior welterweight division, WBA champion Regis Prograis and IBF titleholder Josh Taylor will unify in a fight this fall, making it all the more important for Ramirez to get past Catterall if he's going to have a possible shot for undisputed glory in 2020.