Is ‘El Tren’s Time in Boxing Coming to an End?
Robeisy Ramirez just signed with Raizd Boxing, a startup promotional company so new that it has not yet staged its first event. The two-time Olympic gold medalist, the former WBO Featherweight champion, the southpaw who beat Shakur Stevenson in the 2016 Olympic final, that fighter hit the open market earlier this year, and Matchroom Boxing did not move. Golden Boy did not move. Zuffa Boxing did not move. None of the major outfits pulled the trigger. A company that exists mostly on Instagram announced the signing on Monday, and that was the end of it.
That silence from the top of the promotional food chain is the story. Not the signing itself, which Raizd will benefit from enormously given where they are in their existence, but the fact that nobody with real infrastructure and real resources saw enough reason to step in for a fighter with one of the most decorated amateur resumes in the history of the sport. Two Olympic gold medals, a world title run at featherweight, and a professional record of 14 and three with nine stoppages. That Olympic pedigree signifies it doesn't carry as much success as it formerly did.
The explanation sits in the last 18 months of 'El Tren's' career. Rafael Espinoza beat him by majority decision in December of 2023, a dramatic fight in which both men hit the canvas, and many observers scored differently from the judges. That result alone would not have scared anyone off. The rematch is where the picture changed. In December of 2024, the medalist was ahead on two scorecards through five rounds before a right hand and a disputed elbow ended the fight in the sixth round. He has not competed since. Over a year of inactivity followed an already inconclusive loss, and that combination gave every major promoter an easy reason to wait.
There is also a timeline problem that no promoter can ignore. 'El Tren' is 32 years old, and that number carries extra weight for a fighter who came through Cuba's national system. The Cuban amateur program sharpens fighters early and demands a great deal from them physically. Ramirez compiled a 106-19 amateur record, fought in two Olympic cycles, and carried that mileage into a professional career that now sits at the lower end of its runway. A rebuild at 32 is not the same proposition as a rebuild at 27. Promoters who run the math on three or four developmental fights before a title shot are looking at a fighter who would be well past 33 by the time that opportunity materializes, assuming everything goes right. That calculation does not produce enthusiasm.
None of this changes what the Cuban can still do inside the ring. His footwork holds up. His counter-timing at range remains sharp when he sets his stance properly. The southpaw angles that gave Espinoza trouble in their first fight are still there. He is scheduled to return on May 29th in Tashkent against Asror Vokhidov, a local fighter without a world-level profile, which is exactly the kind of fight a 32-year-old coming off a loss and an extended layoff needs. Whether that path leads back to relevance at featherweight or eventually forces a move up to the Super Featherweight Division is a question that requires answers on the scorecards before it can be addressed elsewhere.
What Raizd did by signing him was smart opportunism. A recognizable name with a genuine pedigree costs less than it did two years ago, and if Ramirez strings together a few wins, the company that moved first looks prescient. In contrast, the major players seem to have miscalculated. That is the risk the big four accepted when they stayed quiet. Boxing is a sport that tends to remember who passed on whom when the fighter in question finds another gear. 'El Tren' has every reason to make that memory uncomfortable.
