Albert Ramirez no longer faces Lerrone Richards this Thursday, February 5, in Montreal, as he was forced to withdraw due to a medical issue that led to hospitalization. The bout between Mehmet Unal and Altin Zogaj is now the headliner for the first Eye of the Tiger event of the year at Cabaret du Casino.
Eye of the Tiger announced: Despite a flawless training camp and no injuries, Albert Ramirez (22-0, 19 KOs) was hospitalized overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday. Although he is still being evaluated by doctors, the medical team suspects a case of appendicitis, which unfortunately renders him unable to compete on Thursday night.
Unbeaten Ramirez of Venezuela was scheduled to make the first defense of his WBA interim light heavyweight title against former IBO belt holder Richards (19‑1, 4 KOs) of the UK.
The new main event is for the WBC Continental Americas championship, as Montreal-based Unal (14‑0) of Turkiye defends his 175-pound strap against Germany-based Zogaj (17‑0) of Kosovo.
In the co-feature, Dzmitry Asanau (11-0) defends his WBC Continental Americas lightweight title against Carlos Ramos (18-3-1, 10 KOs) of Spain by way of Ecuador.
The undercard includes:
- Thomas Chabot (11-1) vs. Dominic Babineau (13-2-1), featherweight
- Wyatt Sanford (5-0) vs. Alexis Gabriel Camejo (10-5-2), lightweight
- Keven Beausejour (1-0) vs. Petr Strnad (4-3-2), light heavyweight
- Dante Tice Oliveira (1-0) vs. Gonzalo Omar Manriquez (6-7-1), welterweight