Forget penciling it in.

As far as Gilberto Ramirez is concerned, you can go ahead and confirm the phone call that he and his managerial team will be making come Monday morning.

Now a 30-year-old contender at light heavyweight – and already a five-defense champion at 168 pounds – he fully expects to be ringing up representatives of unbeaten Dmitry Bivol, the WBA’s top belted man at 175, to set a time, date and place for their showdown sometime in 2022.

“Of course,” Ramirez said. “That’s my plan.

“That’s my year-ender. I need to pass through this guy and the title fight will come.”

Ah yes… this guy.

Ramirez actually has a last competitive hurdle to clear before hitting the send button on his smartphone – in the hulking form of Cuban slugger Yunieski Gonzalez, with whom he’ll compete in a Saturday night bout that’s officially been deemed a title eliminator for a shot at Bivol.

The fight will top a DAZN card that’ll air live from the AT&T Center in San Antonio at 9 p.m.

The 36-year-old Gonzalez stands a sturdy 6 feet, has fought as heavy as 197 pounds and has finished three foes in five total rounds since returning from a three-plus-year ring hiatus in October 2020.

He’d lost three of five bouts across two years before the exit, dropping narrow nods to Jean Pascal and Vyacheslav Shabranskyy and suffering a three-round blowout at the fists of soon-to-be champ Oleksandr Gvozdyk on a show featuring both Oleksandr Usyk and Vasyl Lomachenko in April 2017.

Ramirez is ranked fourth by the WBA – a slot ahead of Gonzalez in fifth and both in pursuit of Bivol, who spent last Saturday defeating 10th-ranked Umar Salamov by wide decision in his eighth title defense.

The Kazakh-born Russian is 19-0 with 11 KOs and has held his belt since 2017.

But if you think his effort left Ramirez reconsidering his plan, think again. 

“I saw a couple rounds,” he said. “Nothing special. He’s holding my belt and that’s all.”

As mentioned earlier, it’s not the first time Ramirez, a native of Mazatlán – a Mexican resort town made famous by the old “Love Boat” TV show – has pursued championship status. 

He was particularly impressive while winning the WBO’s super middleweight title from Arthur Abraham on the Pacquiao-Bradley III card in 2016, but even with five successful defenses never ascended to the stardom many had expected based on that performance as a 24-year-old.

He moved to 175 pounds in April 2019 and debuted with a four-round stoppage of Tommy Karpency, but spent the subsequent 20 months in a personal/promotional/pandemic quagmire before emerging with a 10th-round finish of Alfonso Lopez in Galveston last December.

The ante was upped this past July in Los Angeles, where he dropped Sullivan Barrera three times with body shots before getting rid of him 98 seconds into the fourth round. 

The reliably durable Barrera had reached the 12th round before falling to Bivol in his own WBA challenge in 2018, had beaten now-WBO champ Joe Smith Jr. by decision in 2017 and had gone the distance with the since-retired Andre Ward in a non-title match in 2016.

The Barrera win bumped Ramirez to 42-0 with 28 KOs.

And the Gonzalez win, presumably, will be yet another welcome boost to the holiday season for a guy fighting within two weeks of Christmas for the third time in three years.

Ramirez defeated Jesse Hart by majority decision in his final super middleweight defense on Dec. 14, 2018, then stopped Lopez a minute into the 10th round on Dec. 18, 2020. 

Earlier in his career, he scored win No. 6 in December 2009 and stopped a then-unbeaten Rogelio “Porky” Medina to get to 15-0 in December 2010. 

“It’s something special for me to fight in December,” he said. “At the end of the day I want to be able to spend time with my family at Christmas and New Year’s. That is what’s important to me. The last time I couldn’t stay with them, but now it’s different and I feel glad to make this fight happen.”

* * * * * * * * * * 

This week’s title-fight schedule:

WBA minimum title – Phuket, Thailand

Thammanoon Niyomtrong (champion/No. 1 IWBR) vs. Robert Paradero (No. 13 WBA/No. 41 IWBR)

Niyomtrong (22-0, 8 KO): Tenth title defense; Tenth title fight in Thailand (9-0, 2 KO)

Paradero (18-1, 12 KO): Second title fight (0-1); First fight outside of the Philippines

Fitzbitz says: Niyomtrong has long been a favorite of those who prefer the lightest weights and there seems little reason to believe he won’t continue the momentum here. Niyomtrong by decision (99/1)

IBF/WBA bantamweight title – Tokyo, Japan

Naoya Inoue (champion/No. 1 IWBR) vs. Aran Dipaen (No. 5 IBF/Unranked IWBR)

Inoue (21-0, 18 KO): Fourth IBF title defense; Five KO wins in six fights at 118 pounds

Dipaen (12-2, 11 KO): First title fight; Eleven straight wins by KO (2.45-round average) 

Fitzbitz says: Dipaen is taking part in his first title bout, but it seems an especially cruel indoctrination to put him in with Inoue. It’d be a colossal upset, but it won’t happen. Inoue in 2 (99/1)

WBO mini-flyweight title – Tokyo, Japan

Wilfredo Mendez (champion/No. 6 IWBR) vs. Masataka Taniguchi (No. 1 WBO/No. 13 IWBR)

Mendez (16-1, 6 KO): Third title defense; First fight in Japan

Taniguchi (14-3, 9 KO): Second title fight (0-1); Three straight wins since title-fight loss in 2019

Fitzbitz says: These guys are sometimes hard to predict because not many folks have seen them a lot. But if common foes are valid, the needle tips to Mendez. Good enough. Mendez by decision (75/25)

IBF/WBC light heavyweight titles – Montreal, Quebec

Artur Beterbiev (champion/No. 1 IWBR) vs. Marcus Browne (No. 1 WBC/No. 10 IWBR)

Betebiev (16-0, 16 KO): Second WBC title defense; KO wins in all five title fights (8.2-round average)

Browne (24-1, 16 KO): First title fight; First fight outside the United States

Fitzbitz says: There’s a lot of reasons to think this will be a fun fight, but not a lot of reasons to think Browne can win in. He didn’t blow away Jean Pascal, and Beterbiev is better. Beterbiev in 8 (95/5)

Last week's picks: 3-0 (WIN: Edwards, Bivol, Donaire)

2021 picks record: 49-16 (75.3 percent)  

Overall picks record: 1,205-391 (75.5 percent)  

NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.  

Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.