Prospect Alert- Hard Work Fuels Luis Ramos

Trainer Hector Lopez remembers the first time he met Luis Ramos 13 years ago at his TKO Boxing Club in Santa Ana, California. And to be honest, he thought it would be the last time he'd ever see him.

He never thought that the best fighter he has ever worked with had just come into his life.

“He walked into the gym, I think he was eight, going on nine, he was a pudgy little kid," Lopez recalled. "He actually walked in with his two other brothers, younger sister and mother. They lived in the area and what caught his attention was just all the noise, the bags, the speed bags, the ropes and he was kinda in awe and he asked for an application. And I thought, 'This kid won’t come back.' Nine out of ten kids we give those applications to, they never come back. Well, he came back the next day and he was the first one there. So I was like, 'Oh, OK.'"

Ramos remembers the day he discovered the TKO Boxing Club, which was then adjacent to a community center that offered other activities.

"I was on my way to church and eventually I saw the gym and I asked my mom if she would go with me to the gym. They were down at the park, down the street from my house. My mom said sure," he would tell Maxboxing. "So we went, we took a look around, they had different sports, basketball, soccer - and me, typical Mexican, I wanted to join soccer - but then the lady at the center told me, 'Oh, we have boxing, and then I checked it out and I saw different kids in the ring, hitting the bags. So I thought I'd give it a shot. The next day I signed up.

"I actually went to the store, bought these plastic gloves and had 'em ready and everything. Then I went to the gym, and ever since I stepped in that ring I’ve been there the rest of my life."

He admits he wasn't a pugilistic prodigy.

"Actually, no. At the beginning I was still figuring it out, but then when I got into the ring and started sparring for the first time I actually didn't know how to throw punches. I kinda gave it a thought, 'Oh well, I still don't know if I want to do it.' But then I came home crying and then the next day my mom came and told me, 'If you like it, then we'll stay. If not, stop.' I just made a choice by myself to keep on doing it and I wanted to learn."

Lopez says, "He was one of those kids that wasn't really gifted as far as sports. He never played Little League, never played soccer, so this was kinda new to him and he got going."

But what Ramos does have is a never ending work ethic.

"Luis is a perfectionist," says his trainer. "He works at it really, really hard. He's a gym rat, and nothing’s come easy to this kid. He works his ass off. We got his license at nine and within a week he had his first bout and he started winning pretty much from then."

Soon he became an amateur standout.

"He won a lot of national tournaments as a kid. And it's really hard to tell if they're really going to be that good when they're young because they’re so close to each other as far as the competitive level," Lopez states. "But there was something about the kid. I remember telling my wife, 'There's something about this kid. He just works really, really, really hard.' But he distanced himself right at the Junior Olympics. We were in Brownsville, Texas and he did really well. Had his first knockdown and you could just see he was going to be a special kid."

Fast forward to 2009, and Ramos is now a versatile, southpaw boxer-puncher, who has a professional mark of 9-0. As his bid for the 2008 Olympic Games fell short, Lopez would advise manager Frank Espinoza to take a look at Ramos. At the time, Espinoza was in the process of inking another one of Lopez's talented young charges, Ronnie Rios.

"I liked what I saw and I signed him right away," said the respected manager.

Espinoza is best known for guiding the careers of Martin Castillo and Israel Vazquez. He believes that along with Carlos Molina, Rios and Molina, he has his next standout in this young lightweight.

"No question," he states. "I feel that he has all the ability to be a world champion. He has good work habits, he's always in the gym, he's active and he's been progressing very well."

This past October 24th, he would get his sternest test as a professional when he decisioned rugged journeyman Sadot Vazquez at the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario, California, over six rounds.

"Sadot's a really tough kid. There's no way to think that Luis didn't handle him very well. He did an excellent job on Sadot, but it's a guy who gave him the rounds. He needed that experience and to dig a little bit more than he was used to. He showed himself very well," said Thompson Boxing Promotions matchmaker Alex Camponovo, whose company ran that event.

Camponovo says of Ramos, "I think he's definitely a prospect, somebody to look out for. He's very strong at that division, and he’s got a lot of power, a lot of speed. Sometimes he's 'scary powerful'. I hate to say it, but a number of times when he was at our shows we had to use the ambulance because the physicians believed they needed to look at those opponents that he knocked out so violently. So he's got a lot of power."

As powerful as he may be inside the ring, the 2006 graduate of Santa Ana Valley High is just as soft-spoken and well-mannered outside of it.

"He's a good kid, he's a very humble kid, he's not big-headed, just a very humble kid," says Espinoza. "He reminds me a lot of Israel Vazquez, a gentleman outside the ring, very polite. But when he gets in the ring, he's got the heart of a lion. He just turns into a different person, like a beast."

The word is getting out on Ramos. And Espinoza will continue to keep him busy. As of now, they are unattached promotionally.

"I'm going to certainly move Ramos as much as I can, keep him active, keep him fighting at all times, keep him in shape. I plan on fighting him at least seven times in 2009. The big picture is, when he starts getting to the ten rounders, he's like 14, 15-0, that's the time I'm going to start looking around for a promoter to start moving him because that's when I've done my job and it's time for him to go to the next level."

Lopez believes he has a horse he can ride all the way.

"I don't like to compare this kid. If you ask him, he's going to tell you, 'I'm not trying to be the next Oscar or Pacquiao'; he wants to be the first Luis Ramos. And I think the sky's the limit. Yeah, he's only 20 years old and we try and stay humble but once we get in the ring, we know we gotta kick ass, we gotta knock some heads and I think the potential’s there, obviously," says the trainer. "But it's hard to tell right now; it's hard to gauge it, but he does put in a lot of work. He's very dedicated to his craft and you need somebody to help you out in this sport.

"You need to be connected, and with Frank obviously, he's opened the doors. Now we gotta do the rest."

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