Fight Talk

Your Boy The What’s Next Kid

Sits Down With Jesús “El Mono” Ramos Jr.!

(September 10th) From a family garage in Casa Grande, Arizona, to the world championship stage, Jesús “El Mono” Ramos Jr. has built his boxing career the hard way and now the 25-year-old southpaw is standing among the middleweight division’s most dangerous contenders. In an engaging conversation with “The What’s Next Kid” on Fight Talk With Your Boy, Ramos Jr. opened up about his family, his humble beginnings, the first defeat of his professional career, his championship breakthrough and the mentality that continues to push him toward the very top of boxing.

Born March 7, 2001, in Casa Grande, Arizona, and still representing his hometown, Ramos Jr. has boxing in his blood. Before there were championship belts, television appearances and packed arenas, there was a garage. That garage served as the Ramos family gym, where his father trained fighters and his uncles worked toward their own boxing ambitions. As a young boy, Jesús would watch the action and eventually become part of it, getting his hands wrapped by his father and working the mitts. One of his earliest memories remains remarkably vivid: his father correcting him when he dropped his hands, even going as far as smacking him with a mitt. At the time, it made the young Ramos angry. Looking back, he recognizes those moments as part of the foundation that taught him discipline, perseverance and the value of hard work.

Ramos Jr. developed an impressive amateur résumé before turning professional. He compiled 55 amateur bouts, won the 2013 Junior Olympics, followed that success by winning the 2014 Junior Olympics, and finished third at the 2015 Silver Gloves. With that extensive youth boxing background behind him, Ramos made the decision to enter the professional ranks while still just 17 years old in May 2018. The move marked the beginning of a professional journey that would eventually carry him from a teenage prospect into a world-ranked contender and championship fighter.

His professional numbers tell the story of a fighter who has consistently brought power into the ring. Ramos Jr. has compiled a 24-1 professional record with 19 knockouts, has boxed 126 professional rounds and owns an impressive 79.17% knockout percentage. Listed at 5 feet, 10 inches with a 72-inch reach, Ramos fights from the southpaw stance and competes under the nickname “El Mono.” His combination of size, southpaw angles, pressure and punching power has made him one of the more intriguing offensive fighters in the middleweight landscape. PBC lists him at 24-1 with 19 KOs and confirms the 126 rounds boxed and 79.17% knockout percentage.

The Ramos family influence extends well beyond his father. His uncle Abel Ramos, a longtime professional fighter, provided Jesús with something that only another professional boxer could truly offer: firsthand knowledge of what it feels like to deal with the lights, the crowds and the pressure. Ramos recalled one of his earliest major television experiences, when he was only 18 years old and preparing to walk into the ring at Mandalay Bay. Looking out and seeing his family, the cameras and the massive arena, the young fighter suddenly wondered what he was doing there. Abel was there to settle him down, reminding him to breathe, enjoy the walk and trust what he had prepared to do. It was another important lesson from a family that had already spent years learning the business of boxing.

But every fighter eventually encounters a moment that tests everything he believes about himself. For Ramos, that moment came on September 30, 2023, when he entered the ring undefeated at 20-0 and faced Erickson Lubin. Ramos suffered his first professional defeat by unanimous decision after 12 rounds. Rather than allowing the loss to fracture his career or his team, Ramos describes it as a necessary lesson. He acknowledged that the entire group was still relatively inexperienced and had believed that simply working harder would solve every problem. The defeat forced Ramos and his team to examine themselves, learn from what had happened and grow together. No dramatic overhaul followed. Instead, they stayed together, talked through the loss and came back better.

That experience would prove invaluable when Ramos returned to the biggest stage. Following the Lubin setback, he put together a strong comeback that included stoppage victories over Johan Gonzalez, Jeison Rosario and Guido Emmanuel Schramm, rebuilding momentum and positioning himself for a championship opportunity. PBC records those victories as a ninth-round stoppage of Gonzalez in May 2024, an eighth-round stoppage of Rosario in February 2025 and a seventh-round stoppage of Schramm in March 2025.

Then came Shane Mosley Jr. and the opportunity Ramos had been waiting for.

On December 6, 2025, at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Ramos stepped into the ring against Mosley Jr. with the WBC Interim Middleweight Championship on the line. Twelve rounds later, Ramos had his hand raised after earning a unanimous decision. The victory moved him to 24-1 with 19 knockouts and established him as the WBC interim middleweight champion. PBC records the Mosley Jr. fight as a 12-round unanimous-decision victory for Ramos.

The road to that championship, however, was anything but comfortable. Ramos revealed during the Fight Talk interview that he entered the Mosley Jr. fight dealing with a right-hand injury and had gone without sparring during the final weeks of preparation. When Mosley began landing punches Ramos felt he should not have been taking, the old memories from the Lubin defeat began rushing back. Ramos described the mental battle that unfolded in the early rounds: doubts about his preparation, questions about whether the lack of sparring would affect him and the fear that the same type of setback could happen again.

Instead of surrendering to those thoughts, Ramos fought back against them. He remembered exactly what the Lubin loss had cost him and reminded himself how much work had gone into getting back to that position. Ramos made a decision in the corner: he was not going to allow history to repeat itself. From there, he simply went to work. Round after round, he fought through the uncertainty, found his rhythm and refused to let the difficult opening moments determine the outcome. By the time the fight reached its later stages, the negative thoughts had been replaced by something much simpler fight. “El Mono” said he was no longer thinking about what round it was; he was simply fighting.

That victory meant more to Ramos than another win on his record. He revealed that he had created a personal rule during his rise through boxing: he would never touch another fighter's world championship belt because he wanted the first belt he held to be one that he had truly earned. At press conferences, when champions brought their belts, Ramos deliberately kept his distance. He wanted his first experience with a world title to come only after his own hand had been raised.

When that moment finally arrived, the emotions were overwhelming. Ramos admitted that he cried after the Mosley Jr. fight, while members of his family cried alongside him. For the fighter who had grown up watching his father train boxers in a garage, the belt represented years of sacrifice, setbacks, training camps and family commitment. It was not simply a championship, it was the physical manifestation of everything the Ramos family had worked toward. Now the stakes are even higher.

Ramos, set to will make the first defense of his WBC Interim Middleweight Title against unbeaten mandatory challenger Meiirim Nursultanov on September 19, 2026, at Pechanga Arena in San Diego in the high-stakes Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz vs. Nestor Bravo, co-main event, live on DAZN pitting the 25-year-old interim champion’s 24-1 record and 19 knockouts against Nursultanov’s perfect 20-0 mark.

The fight represents another significant chapter for a fighter who has already demonstrated that he can overcome adversity. Ramos is no longer simply the young prospect who exploded onto the professional scene at 17. He is a world champion who has experienced the pressure of an undefeated prospect, suffered his first loss, rebuilt his career, battled through adversity and captured championship gold. And he still believes there is another level to reach.

In fact, Ramos has made it clear that the interim championship is not the ultimate destination. His ambition is to become the undisputed—or at minimum, the full WBC—middleweight champion. The next challenge against Nursultanov provides an opportunity to prove that the championship belt he worked so hard to earn is only the beginning.

Yet perhaps the most revealing part of the Fight Talk interview comes when Ramos looks backward rather than forward. He remembers watching his uncle Muay prepare for the Golden Gloves inside the family garage, with a local newspaper photographer documenting the training camp. As a young boy, Ramos watched the cameras surround his uncle and imagined that one day those cameras would be there for him. He dreamed of becoming the fighter everyone wanted to watch, that dream has come true.

The cameras followed Ramos into the biggest arenas. The family garage became the launching pad for a professional career that now includes 25 professional bouts, 24 victories, 19 knockouts, 126 rounds boxed and a 79.17% knockout percentage. The teenager who once wondered whether he belonged under the television lights is now a world champion preparing for another major championship assignment and Ramos is still hungry.

Asked what boxing fans could expect, Ramos did not offer a complicated prediction. He simply delivered a message: “Don’t miss this fight.” He believes he has put together a great training camp, expects to deliver a strong performance and wants to steal the show.

From the garage in Casa Grande to the world championship stage, Jesús “El Mono” Ramos Jr. has already built a story filled with family, sacrifice, adversity and redemption. At 25, the best chapters may still be ahead. With a powerful southpaw style, 19 professional knockouts, a 79.17% knockout percentage and a WBC interim middleweight championship around his waist, Ramos has evolved from a teenage prospect into one of boxing's must-watch middleweights.

The garage may have been where the dream began.

Now the world is watching to see how far “El Mono” can take it.