North Philly's Jesse Hart is ready for title shot

Jesse Hart's boxing days began when he was 8 at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center on Cecil B. Moore Avenue.

All of the fighters back then could choose a song to play before their fights. Hart chose a song called "I'm the Greatest," his mother Deborah Williams, 62, said.

Hart's next chance to prove his greatness is set for Sept. 22. The 28-year-old North Philadelphia native will face Gilberto Ramirez in a 12-round fight for the World Boxing Organization super-middleweight title in Tucson, Ariz. Hart held a public workout session Thursday at the Joe Hand Boxing Gym at 3rd and Green Streets.

"We're ready now," said Eugene "Cyclone" Hart, Jesse's father and one of his trainers. "Everything that we did to get ready for it, we're ready for it now. We can go tomorrow if we have to."

Hart has an undefeated professional record that includes 18 knockouts and is the top super-middleweight contender in the WBO. Ramirez, 26, became the first Mexican to win a super-middleweight world title in April 2016, and he successfully defended his title in a unanimous decision against Ukraine's Maxim Bursak in April.

Hart said he has a picture of Ramirez as the background on his phone, on his mirror and in his bedroom. Promotional posters of the fight hung from the ropes around the ring as Hart did ab roll-outs, push-ups and crunches on an exercise mat and white towel that were laid on top of the canvas Thursday.

Hart has seen Ramirez more frequently than his 5-year-old daughter Halo, who he saw for the first time in five or six weeks Thursday, he said.

Hart is feeling confident eight days before the fight. Inside the Joe Hand Boxing Gym, a banner hangs high on a wall on the south end. It reads, "Home of future World Champion and current [North American Boxing Federation] Super Middleweight Champion Jesse 'Hard Work' Hart."

"I'm not in it to be the best I can be," Hart said. "I'm in it to be the best at it. Period."