Camille Estephan’s Eye of the Tiger returns to the Montreal Casino this Thursday with their first show of 2026, with Albert Ramirez defending his WBA interim light heavyweight title against Lerrone Richards.
Estephan has started 2026 on high with Christian Mbilli being elevated to the WBC super-middleweight champion. Ramirez (22-0, 19 KOs) will be joined on the bill with Dzmitry Asanau, Mehmut Unal, and Wyatt Sandford, who are all expected to go as far as Mbilli.
“We are doing what we are supposed to be doing,” Estephan said exclusively to FightsATW. “The lesson from last year is to stay the course. We have developed our fighters and brought them to the level we wanted, and we have respected the programme and respected the process that has been working for us very well. When you look at our roster, of the 23 that we have under our banner, 14 of them are ranked in the top 25 on BoxRec. The level of activity and level of opponents we bring has been right, and many of the fighters hold regional belts. On every front, 2025 has been a big and important year for us, and 2026, especially the first six months, will be even bigger because we have positioned ourselves in the right fights. Now we have to seize the moment.”
Ramirez claimed the WBA interim title in his last outing with a seventh-round stoppage against Jerome Pampellone last August in Benghazi, Libya. The 33-year-old Venezuelan is on a four-fight knockout streak, having also dispatched of Adam Deines, Marko Calic, and Michael Alan Flannery.
Richards (19-1, 4 KOs) has secured the British, Commonwealth, European, and the IBO belts in a career in which he struggled to find willing opponents. The London southpaw tasted his first defeat against Steed Woodall last year, a sixth-round stoppage, but returned under the radar on the British small-hall scene with a routine points victory over journeyman Dylan Courtney last September.
“It’s a very intriguing fight,” Estephan explained. “Richards has been avoided, then he stumbled when he lost a fight, and there were some problems with the contractual situation. But we have shown before that we are not scared to take a risk. It’s a relevant fight! If Ramirez beats Richards, then it puts him in a position to challenge [Dmitry] Bivol, [Artur] Beterbiev, or any of the big names. He’s right there. I honestly believe that he can beat any of them. Ramirez can beat anyone, and we are willing to show that he is ready. He is training with a solid team, and he comes to Montreal for sparring. He was sparring another one of our light heavyweights, Imam Khataev, who we believe beat David Morrell. Iron sharpens iron! Those sparring sessions are better than most fights you will see. Albert is ready to take over.”
Asanau (11-0, 5 KOs) will square off with Spanish southpaw Carlos Ramos (18-3-1, 10 KOs) for the WBC Continental Americas lightweight title in the chief support. The 29-year-old Belarusian linked up with Estephan midway through 2024 and will make his fifth straight appearance in Quebec. Asanau is ranked 4th by the WBC and in 11th place by the IBF.
“We are following the plan, and he will be defending his title,” Estephan said of Asanau. “He is very exciting and he will become a world champion very soon. I really believe that Dzmitry will outclass many of the top lightweights in the world right now. We brought him in, and we have fast-tracked him, and we got him the right opponents. A lot of people were saying that he doesn’t have any power, but he stopped most guys that he fought with us. He looks like [Vasiliy] Lomachenko when I see him fight; he’s incredible.
“We try to bring him different experiences. This is what Marc [Ramsay] has been really forcing upon us: to bring tall guys, strong guys, fast guys, and southpaws. He wants all different types of styles, and he will check off all the boxes after he has seen what he wants to see. I always tell him to ‘unleash the wrath of the tigers.”
Turkish light heavyweight contender Mehmet Unal will also welcome Altin Zogaj to Montreal. The pair will contest for the WBC Continental Americas title. Unal (14-0, 12 KOs) comes off five-straight stoppage victories. The 33-year-old’s most recent victim was Latvia’s Ralfs Vilcans last October. Canadian super lightweight hopeful Wyatt Sanford also joins the undercard. Sanford (5-0, 2 KOs) takes on the 10-5-2 Alexis Gabriel Camejo.
At featherweight, Thomas Cabot (11-1, 8 KOs) will look to get back to winning ways in an all-Canadian affair with Dominic Babineu (13-2-1, 11 KOs) over ten rounds, and 1-0 prospects Keven Beausejour and Dante Tice Oliviera make up the undercard.
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