John 'Scrappy' Ramirez: 'I Will Avenge My Loss And Become A World Champion'

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Junior bantamweight John “Scrappy” Ramirez hopes to accomplish two goals later this year: win a title and avenge his lone defeat.

To do that, he must get by Lucas Emanuel Fernandez on Friday from the SAP Center in San Jose, California.

Ramirez, 16-1 (9 KOs), is currently on a three-fight winning streak, after losing a vacant interim WBA junior bantamweight title fight to David Jimenez. Most notably, Ramirez is ranked No.1 by the WBA. Trained by Julian Chua at Brickhouse Boxing, the 30-year-old Ramirez looks to revisit that fight

“I will kill two birds with one stone that night,” Ramirez said. “I will avenge my loss and become a world champion. That will be sweet for me.”

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Ramirez admits he still thinks back on that fight, which took place on the Devin Haney-Ryan Garcia pay-per-view undercard.

“I can’t sleep at night when I think of my first fight with Jimenez,” Ramirez said. “I know that he is beatable, I know that he is not better than me. He had more experience, and I went in there trying to fight his fight.”

Currently, Jimenez still holds the WBA interim title. The outright belt is held by Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, who is facing Antonio Vargas for a WBA bantamweight title fight on June 13. It is unclear what direction Rodriguez will go after that bout, as he is one belt away from being an undisputed junior bantamweight titleholder, but there have also been hints of a potential bout with Naoya Inoue. If Rodriguez were to leave the division, that could lay out the possibility for Jimenez to be elevated to the WBA outright titleholder.

For this fight, Fernandez, 14-4-2 (9 KOs), has had mixed success in his recent fights. The 34-year-old from Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina, Fernandez, is coming off a December unanimous decision win over Sixto Dionel Perez. Before that, he lost a majority decision against Abel Leandro Silva in his return to the ring after a four-year hiatus. Ramirez aims to make the most of being highly talked about in a highly talked about undercard bout, as he hopes to head into a title fight later this year.

“The main focus is winning,” Ramirez said of his bout on Friday night. “I want [the rematch with Jimenez], because I deserve the fight.”