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Rocky “The Angry Aztec” Ramirez (6-1-1 as a Professional Cagefighter, and 1-0 as a Professional Boxer), is a man slated from birth, to be a fighter. As one might suspect, he was indeed named after the famous boxer Rocky Marciano, by his father Albert Ramirez (professional boxer recently inducted into the Roswell Hall of Fame) who began to teach him to box from the age of 5. He attended MayfieldHigh Schoolin Las Cruces, where he played football all 4 years, as well as a year of wrestling. After high school, he attended NMSU for a year, for business management, but he soon decided the college life wasn’t for him, and he joined the United States Air Force. He served our country for 4 years as a specialty fireman. When he got out of the service, he moved to Santa Feto do some construction work, but after a few months, he moved to Raton to serve once again as a firefighter. During that time, he began to learn Kajukenbo and Hakko Ryu Jujitsu from Sensei Randy Rogers and Sifu Luke Seawolf. Under their instruction, he had his first amateur cagefight for King of the Cage. His coaches soon realized Ramirez’ potential, but felt he needed more than just their instruction. Sensei Rogerscalled on his friend, Greg Jackson, to help out. Jacksondrove up to Raton, trained with Ramirez for 5 hours, and invited him to come down to Albuquerqueto train on a regular basis. So he commuted to Albuquerqueonce or twice a week for nearly 2 years, until one day, Jacksonasked why he did not move. Ramirez thought about it, and decided he wanted to dedicate himself to fighting full time. He left the Raton Fire Department as Captain, and moved to Albuquerquein 2006, and has not looked back.
Although Ramirez had 8 fights as an amateur and felt ready to go professional, Coach Jackson told him he need to do some grappling tournaments and kickboxing smokers first. So Ramirez attended multiple competitions, often winning first place, over the next 9 months. In addition, Coach Winkeljohn required several months of kickboxing smokers. Finally, at the end of 2007, Ramirez approached Coach Jackson, asking him if he could finally go professional. Jackson said yes, and Ramirez made his professional debut in February 2008.
Wanting to be a “working fighter”, that is, a fighter who competes more than once every few months, Ramirez decided to try his hand at professional boxing. To that end, he made his debut on Johnny Tapia’s card in June 2011, winning by KO in the second round. He plans to continue fighting in both sports, as often as he can, barring any further injuries. He won his most recent fight at the MMA Fight Pit in August, against Mark Lujan by TKO, even though he suffered from a broken foot. In fact, he has fought 4 times in the last 7 months, winning them all. He started training again right after MMA Fight Pit, but soon sustained another injury. Now recovered, he is looking to fight in December, with his management team working to lock down an event for him, either in boxing or cagefighting. Not content only with fighting, Ramirez also owns a “hardcore power gym”, Westside Power Gym, in Rio Rancho, which he opened in November 2010 and hosted the first annual Westside Power Gym Strongman Competition on July 23, 2011.
A man dedicated to country and community, Ramirez continues to be involved in with service organizations like WhatWouldUGive, an organization dedicated to “provide grass-roots support for all of our veterans, by assisting them to achieve their after-military life goals, as well as providing safe havens for veterans, while building camaraderie among the local community, our veterans, and their families.”
Ramirez is proud to be a part of this group: “Our military doesn’t get recognized and remembered, no veteran who has served, especially combat mission, should be homeless, and yet there are over 5000 homeless veterans in our state alone.” For more information on this organization, see their website www.whatwouldugive.org.
For more information on Westside Power Gym, see www.westsidepowergym.com
Ramirez would like to thank his other sponsors, German American Technologies, Complete Nutrition,Jackson’s MMA, Dextrus Fightwear, Absolute Throwdown Fightshop, Mean1MMA, Streamline Insurance Services and Ambition.
