Boxing Trainer Ramos, 75, Ready To Help

At the age of 75, he’s still in the ring training amateur boxers at the Beyond Box­ing Club on the Burnaby border of Vancouver in Canada.

A former Fiji resident John Ra­mos, a veteran trainer, who is still licensed by Boxing Canada.

“I’m still in the ring,” Ramos told SUNsports.

“That’s my passion for the sport. It is a God given gift and I’m in good health at 75 as I help young boxers to stay off the streets.”

Gym owner Robin described Ra­mos, “a wonderful guy. He is a world champion trainer and this is from what I see on how he trains our boxers.”

In the 1970s, Ramos owned the Ra­mos Boxing Club, in Suva where he groomed our Golden Boy Sakaraia Ve, Wili Tarika, Sikeli Veitala, An­thony Naidu, Setareki Boletawa and the list goes on.

Under his guidance, Ve was rat­ed No.7 in the welterweight divi­sion of the World Boxing Council (WBC).

This was during the time where world boxing greats like Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran and Wilfred Benitez ruled the division.

While Fiji featherweight cham­pion Tarika twice fought Johnny Abba for the Commonwealth title but lost narrowly on points.

We spoke to Ramos about his box­ing journey.,

SUN: What were some of the mem­orable moments you had with Ve?

RAMOS: First it was the Jone Mataitini fight when Ve challenged his South Seas middleweight title. Ve was to fight in a new weight di­vision from his 147 pounds (66kg) to 160 pounds (75kg).

We were the underdogs to this fight. People told me that I’ve made the wrong decision to allow Ve fight a heavy huge guy with expe­rience. They were right in their thinking but however, they did not fully know about the Ve-bomb.

Ve proved all critics wrong when he stopped the champion with ring announcer Gary A’Costa announc­ing that he is the new South Seas middleweight champion.

The other memorable moment we had was the return fight with Hec­tor Thompson of Australia.

Ve had just lost twice to Canadian Clyde Gray for the Commonwealth welterweight title. Many boxing pundits have written Ve off but not John Ramos.

Ve then one day requested me; ‘Tamana can you get Hector Thompson for a return fight.’ I told him that I can and I did.

Thompson agreed to defend his South Pacific welterweight title for $5000 with three airline return tickets. Ba promoter Dr Raj Bali agreed and the fight took place in Ba’s soccer stadium (Govind Park). There was a big crowd of 8000 peo­ple that watched the fight.

Ve and I planned the fight on how to counter Thompson from the first round. Ve followed the plan and stopped Thomson in the 11th round. When ring announcer Gary A’Costa announced that Ve was the new South Pacific welterweight champion, it was emotional mo­ment for us as as we were in tears.

SUN: Tell us of a time you had to make a tough decision while in the ring?

RAMOS: I have not faced anything like that while I’m in the ring with my fighters. This is because we’ve set out our plans. At times if plan A is not working with an opponent than I instruct my fighter to use plan B. That is if we’re fighting a southpaw opponent

SUN: What made boxers like Ve, Tarika and Sikeli Veitala different to today’s Fiji boxers?

RAMOS: These boxers were guided well by me. They were disciplined, always persevering, dedicated and are always respectful inside and outside of the ring.

They always do their talking in­side the ring not outside. The box­ers’ who represented the Ramos Boxing Club, were like one big fam­ily.

They were the champions who won titles under the Ramos Boxing Club. Ve had 6 titles, Wili Tarika 1, Setraeki Boletawa 1, Sikeli Veitala 1, Anthony Naidu 1 and Vunmasi 1.

The Ramos Boxing Club was a maker of champions since we had won 11 belts. May God bless these boxers and their families.

But the other thing is amateur boxing is the foundation of pro­fessional boxing. Talented boxers coming out of amateur ranks be­come future champions for pro­fessional boxing. Fiji promoters should always support amateur boxing.

Ve and Tarika came out from the amateur ranks but were in differ­ent clubs while Boletawa and Vei­tala came out from Ramos club’s amateur ranks.

Finally my message to young peo­ple is to respect their parents and elders. Say yes to school and say no to drugs. They must always re­member that they are the leaders of tomorrow.

SUN: Are you willing to assist Fiji boxing as an advisor to the commis­sion?

RAMOS: Yes in any way I can to improve the standard of boxing in general in Fiji. Fiji is my heritage.

Edited by Osea Bola

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