Robeisy Ramirez did not waste any time to position himself for a major title.

To hear him tell it, though, the opportunity he will receive this weekend was more than a year in the making.

A trio of knockout wins in 2022 has placed Ramirez—a 2012 and 2016 Olympic Gold medalist for Cuba—in line to face former 122-pound titlist Isaac Dogboe (24-2, 15KOs) for the vacant WBO featherweight title. However, it wasn’t his victories over Jose Matias Romero, Abraham Nova or Eric Donovan that left him of the belief that he was ready for the title.

“The first fight where I felt like I could fight for a title next was when I beat Capu,” Ramirez told BoxingScene.com.

‘Capu’ would be Orlando Gonzalez, the undefeated Puerto Rican prospect whom Ramirez outpointed in October 2021. The ten-round featherweight took place on the preliminary undercard of the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder III ESPN/Fox Sports Pay-Per-View event in Las Vegas. It was met with mixed reviews, some who praised Ramirez for his effort, others who were dismissive of the fight itself.

Regardless, it was viewed by Ramirez as a pivotal moment in career that—to that point—was spent battling for respect ever since he stunningly lost his August 2019 pro debut.

“He was an unbeaten fighter, and I showed I could fight a full ten round fight without compromising my skills or performance,” noted Ramirez, who has won eleven straight fights heading into his first major title fight.  “After that, I told myself—and my team—that I was ready for the championship level, for twelve rounds. So we started looking at the contenders ranked ahead of us.

“We then fought in Scotland against Eric Donovan [Note: no relation to, but considerably more talented than, this writer], we didn’t expect the fight to end as early as it did but it was certainly a good thing. Then came Nova and we saw that how went. That fight did a lot for my career. So after that fight, we took Matias and was able to beat him in a way that Michel Rivera and even Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz couldn’t do.”

Ramirez-Dogboe headlines an ESPN+ telecast this Saturday from Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox