RIVERSIDE — Last July, Jose Ramirez was boxing Maurice Hooker for two super-lightweight championships in Arlington, Texas.

“It was on his network, in his hometown, in front of Texas judges,” said Robert Garcia, Ramirez’s trainer. “The first four rounds were close. I told Jose, hey, we’ve got a lot going against us here. You’ll have to give me a little more.”

Garcia was hoping Ramirez would turn on the juice in the last 20 or 30 seconds in order to steal rounds.

Ramirez replied, “Okay, tell me when half the round is over.”

Garcia laughed on Thursday, just thinking about it.

“He’s going to go hard for the last minute and a half?” he said. “But that’s who he is.”

Ramirez finished Hooker in the sixth round. He is 25-0 with 17 knockouts. On Feb. 2, which is Super Bowl Sunday, he will take on former champ Viktor Postol at the Mission Hills resort in Haikou, China.

A WBO mandatory fight with Jack Catterall of the United Kingdom would be next.

But the main event at 140 pounds is Ramirez vs. Josh Taylor, who bullied his way to a Super Series title over Regis Prograis. Taylor has the IBF and WBA belts.

Lo and behold, Bob Arum’s Top Rank signed Taylor this week, meaning that the theoretical will become the real.

“Taylor knows the landscape,” said Arum, Ramirez’s promoter from the beginning. “He knows the exposure he can get on ESPN, and he knows he can now fight Jose Ramirez. And both know that there’s the opportunity to go to 147 and get into position to fight Terence Crawford.”

Ramirez showed up at Garcia’s Boxing Academy here Thursday and expertly dodged the Taylor questions. “If that fight happens, we’ll have a plan,” he said.

The collateral goal is to make sure Ramirez, known for his social conscience, becomes known for his activism on canvas. With Garcia in his corner, he has become more explosive and less merciful.

“He wants to do everything to the max,” Garcia said. “We have Vergil Ortiz. He’s going to be a champion someday, and he can really crack. Sometimes I’ll want Jose to spar with someone else, just to get him a rest. He always says no.

“Same thing at the end of camp when he’s been cutting weight and he might be a little tired. He doesn’t take a shortcut.”

Ramirez, 27, is from Avenal, near Fresno. His parents came from Mexico, and Jose often worked the fields, picking peppers. He draws wild crowds when he fights at Fresno State’s SaveMart Center, and he has been a busy advocate for immigrants and for water distribution reform.

“We went to Hainan, where the fight will be, and showed a video presentation,” Arum said. “Some of the leaders saw Jose leading protests and I could tell they were getting a little uneasy. But then they saw him in Gov. (Jerry) Brown’s office, going over legislation. They relaxed then, because they saw him working with government. He’s got every opportunity to go into politics someday.”

Ramirez is taking one fight and one career at a time, but his ambitions are clear.

“You can’t wait for things to happen,” he said. “If you’re waiting for the system to do everything, you’re just giving it more control.”

Ramirez has worked with Rep. Zoe Lofgren on several immigration bills. He says the police and the employers in the Fresno area are protecting immigrants “as much as they can. But the employers can’t go knock on every door and make sure people come to work every day.

“When the workers watch TV and see ICE taking 600 people away from a company in the Midwest, we have to make sure that stops,” he added. “If we want to continue to have crops with good quality, we have to take care of the people who go out there and pick. It would allow us to have better workforce control at the border, better security, a better way to figure out who comes in and out.

“It’s something that has to be done, and I would think the President would sign a bill like that because it affects jobs  It would bring back what we’re known for, the American Dream.”

Ramirez smiled as Garcia wrapped his hands for his sparring session.

“The important thing is to be transparent,” he said. “I’ve got my identity. I’m not looking for another one. I want to be touchable, want people to be close to me. Hopefully I can inspire people. and bring them together.”

First, he wants to start with four belts.