Undefeated WBC and WBO junior welterweight champion Jose Carlos Ramirez 25-0 (17) has praised Mikey Garcia 40-1 (30), saying the former four-weight world champion has heavier hands than Manny Pacquiao 62-7-2 (39).
The 27-year-old US Olympian, who is awaiting for a new date fight for his fight with former titleholder Viktor Postol, has sparred numerous rounds with both Garcia and the Filipino superstar.
“They hit the same, but I think Mikey [Garcia] has probably a little heavier hand,” Ramirez said to EsNews.
“Pacquiao just puts it together really well, he puts three or four punches. It doesn’t take a lot of power to land a clean shot and for someone to feel it. As long as the shots are pointed properly it could hurt anybody.”
Ramirez believes that a fight between the 41-year-old Pacquiao and Garcia, 32, would be a perfect matchup as both boxers moved up from the lower weight classes and are at the smaller end of the scale for welterweights.
“Mikey is not the biggest 147-pounder out there. Same thing with Mikey, Pacquiao is not the biggest 147-pounder, so I think it would be a fight that would make sense for both of them,” he said.
Ramirez claimed the vacant WBC 140-pound title against Amir Ahmed Imam at Madison Square Garden in New York in March 2018 and defended the belt twice before meeting WBO champion Maurice Hooker in a unification bout in Arlington, Texas in July last year.
In that fight Ramirez had Hooker on the deck in the first round and was leading on two of the three judges’ scorecards when he finished off Hooker on the ropes with a flurry of power shots to the head in the sixth round.