In the hours leading up to the Saul "Canelo" Alvarez vs. Jaime Munguia pay-Per-view broadcast on Saturday, PBC on Prime Video will offer two undercard bouts free to view for Amazon Prime subscribers. Both fights showcase contenders in the 154-pound division. The highest-rated contender of the four, Jesus “El Mono” Ramos Jr. (20-1, 16 KOs) will take on Venezuelan knockout artist Johan “The Chelo Manotas” Gonzalez (34-2, 33 KOs) in a ten-round bout. Still only 21 years old, Vito "White Magic" Mielnicki Jr. (17-1, 12 KOs), of Roseland, New Jersey, will face Ronald “Diablo” Cruz (19-3-1, 12 KOs), of North Hollywood, California in another ten-round contest.
Ramos, of Casa Grande, AZ, will return to the ring seven months after suffering a dubious defeat against Erickson Lubin in a WBC/WBA world title eliminator on September 30th. Despite getting outlanded in a terribly uneventful fight, Lubin was awarded a unanimous decision with very controversial scorecards. The southpaw Ramos applied pressure and initiated most of the exchanges with power punches, while Lubin was content to jab and fight on the backfoot.
“I don’t think it was my best night, but I still felt like I did enough to pull it off,” said Ramos, of the loss to Lubin. “Obviously, it wasn’t my best performance and I’m aware of that, but I felt like it was enough to win. I was the one in control the whole fight, pushing him back, landing more punches. Some of the rounds that I felt I did the most effective work; they gave it to him. I was disappointed obviously, but I’m going to show in this fight that it was just a bump in the road. The journey continues and I’m not going to stop until I’m a world champion.”
Gonzalez, now based out of Las Vegas and trained by Ismael Salas, made his US debut last year, with back-to-back wins in Plant City, FL. He has won three straight since losing on points in Russia in December 2022 against Magomed Kurbanov. Gonzalez, who has 18 first-round knockouts, has only reached the sixth round three times in his professional career. In his last fight, Gonzalez struggled to earn a ten-round majority decision victory against Guido Schramm on November 15th.
Expecting a competitive fight from Gonzalez, Ramos said, “I know he hits hard. He has 33 knockouts in his 34 wins, so he has some pop. I know he’s going to come forward and he’s going to try to pressure me. I expect that. I expect a fun fight while it lasts. We both have power, so don’t expect it to go the distance.” Ramos owns quality wins against Brian Mendoza, Luke Santamaria and Joey Spencer.
Mielnicki has picked up nine wins, with seven by knockout, since his lone defeat by majority decision in 2021. Before his 2019 pro debut, Mielnicki Jr. was a touted amateur, having compiled a 147-22 record. He was a four-time Junior National Golden Gloves champion, a two-time Silver Gloves National champion, a two-time Ringside World champion, and a two-time US Junior National Champion.
After going the distance against tough contenders Damian Sosa and Xavier Zayas, Cruz traveled to El Salvador to pick up his first win since 2021, earning a unanimous seven-round decision versus Jose Aguirre in December
