Jose Ramirez: Former U.S. Olympian fights for his career, for water and for his people
LAS VEGAS - He could have used his promising boxing career to take him away from the agricultural fields of central California, where his parents have toiled as farm workers and lived paycheck to paycheck for much of their lives, through the droughts that have plagued the area much of the last decade.
Instead, Jose Carlos Ramirez, 23, the former Olympian and now undefeated professional fighter, uses that career and the spotlight it puts him in, to become an advocate for the Latino Water Coalition and help his family and other immigrant farm-working families in the region strive for a better life for themselves and their children through the precious water that is the lifeblood of Central California agriculture.
Ramirez (16-0, 12 KOs) makes his pay-per-view debut on Saturday against Manny Perez (25-11-1, 6 KOs) as part of the televised undercard for the Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley main event (HBO PPV, 9 p.m. ET) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Ramirez didn't have to think long or hard about wanting to help his people instead of leaving them for a better life. Especially since, as someone who worked those fields during his high school years, he knows firsthand how painfully difficult the lives of his family and friends can be.
"Coming from the small town of Avenal, a farming community in central California, when you see the water crisis or drought, you're able to see your family, friends, friends' families, whose lives are not easy to start with, then you start seeing the change because of the drought, it makes you want to be involved in something that's going to help them," Ramirez told Paste BN Sports this week. "And coming out of the Olympics, I felt like a lot of doors opened up, and my confidence of being a voice opened up."
Ramirez knows how the hard-working parents focus on their kids getting an education and, as he puts it so eloquently, giving them a tomorrow. He knows how they live check-to-check, week in and week out, year in and year out. It only reinforces his will to help them.
The Latino Water Coalition has been engaged in a fierce battle over water rights for years with environmental groups that are trying to save the smelt, a species of fish that is endangered in the area, but not in many other areas throughout the U.S.
Manuel Cunha Jr., President of the NISEI Farmers League in Fresno, Calif., puts the farm workers' plight in perspective.
"The San Joaquin Valley represents, in total agriculture in the U.S, probably 60% of all the agriculture, and if we destroy that because of some fish that's more important than human lives, we have gone too far," Cunha told Paste BN Sports. "Right now we're dumping all this water into the ocean - and we've got a great snow pack - because of some fish. They have no care, the environmentalists and the Endangered Species Act puts this fish above human lives. It's sad."
Ramirez sees progress being made and it makes him want to use his notoriety to work harder to succeed.
"If we stay united, I feel there's going to be a time where we're going to win this battle, but this is the type of battle that never finishes," he said. "It's either with the environmentalists or fishing unions that feel the money should go somewhere else. Our job is to find different solutions to make it work. We got the water bond issue passed in 2014, it was a $7.5 million bond, and now we're getting the right team together to create better water storage to help save all the rain water."
His association with Top Rank Promotions brings him closer to his people in other ways, too.
"When I signed with Top Rank, they allowed me to bring boxing into Central California, bring entertainment into Central California, as I did with a couple of my shows early on, as a minor promoter and as a fighter," he said. "It was a perfect way to deliver the message that we should not back down, that we should get together and continue fighting in this water fight, that the Latino Water Coalition has been fighting for many years before I joined it."
As a boxer, Ramirez learns his craft under to tutelage of seven-time Trainer of the Year Freddie Roach, who will also be in Pacquiao's corner Saturday, perhaps for the last time. Pacquiao has said he will retire after this fight. Roach likes what he sees from his young super lightweight.
"He's doing really well. He's the only guy in the gym that can give Frankie Gomez really good work," Roach said. "They're both very good prospects and I think they're both future champions.
"Jose likes to fight a little bit too much. I do like that about him but I want him to be a little smarter about it. He got caught in the first round in his last fight and got knocked down for the first time. So he needs to settle down a little bit and be a little smarter in his approach to his opponent."
Roach says Ramirez's advocacy work with the water coalition hasn't yet interfered with his boxing career. "That issue never comes near the gym," Roach said. "Never."
On Saturday, Ramirez will be on his biggest stage since the London Olympics. He and all those associated with him know how important this is to his future and to the future of the farm workers of Central California.
"He is going to fight on Saturday for water, for jobs and futures and safe food," said Cunha. "And he's going to fight for immigration."
(Photo of Jose Ramirez, left, and Manny Perez during weigh-ins Friday, by Mark J. Rebilas, Paste BN Sports)