David Benavidez is one night away from beating Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez without even getting in the ring with him.
And it’s all because, on Saturday, May 2 atop a Premier Boxing Champions card on Prime Video pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, he rises to the cruiserweight division to take on the unified champion, Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez.
The fight is significant not just because it pits two warriors alongside one another in an all-Mexican shootout, but because the winner could stamp his claim on the Cinco de Mayo date going forward.
It all comes at a time when Canelo’s significance in global boxing wanes at 35 years old, with 68 fights behind him, and a 2025 that saw him take on unheralded fighter William Scull before losing all his titles to Terence Crawford.
The Mexican legend’s absence from Cinco de Mayo this year is noticeable, not least because it allows two of his compatriots to take center stage and, possibly, determine who owns the date going forward.
This, while Canelo appears set to return on Mexican Independence Day, instead.
But, when speaking to Boxing Social, Benavidez told editor Alan Dawson that he’s gunning for that date, too — just not, perhaps, this year.
“I think Floyd and Manny might be fighting on that date this year” in Vegas, he told me when I asked about ways in which he could, as a rapidly-emerging face of North American boxing, tighten his grip on the region’s key dates.
Next year, he said, is different. He wants the weekends closest to May 5 and September 16.
One way to do that, Boxing Social suggested, would be to team up once again with PBC stablemate Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.
The boxers shared a bill to create a memorable doubleheader when Benavidez fought Oleksandr Gvozdyk in a co-feature to support Tank’s main event against Frank Martin. Both Benavidez and Davis won their respective fights and, when on stage speaking to Boxing Social and other reporters, made it clear they would share a card again — with Tank on the co-feature to support a Benavidez main event.
“I think that would be a great idea,” he said, though stressed it “might be hard to go up against” the Mayweather vs Pacquiao rematch if that indeed goes ahead in September. Boxing Scene’s Lance Pugmire recently reported, though, that the fight might be brought forward to August, instead.
“Looking into the future, I’m capitalizing on May and September cards,” he told us. “If we can collaborate with other great fighters, it’s not only good for us but for boxing as a whole.
“We’ve got to take it to the little kids and how to motivate them,” the 28-year-old two-weight champion said.
“When I was little I loved watching the big fights, and events. Imagine if we had Benavidez, Tank, and Ryan Garcia on one card. That’s a gift we have to give back to the fans.
“We’re in the driver’s seat. We want that to happen, and we can make it happen,” he said.
From One Bad Mother-F****** to Another
Dawson has long said Benavidez is boxing’s closest equivalent to UFC’s Baddest Mother-F***** in the game — a mythical title first contested by authentic hispanic fan-favorites Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz.
And in recent years Benavidez has built a friendship with Diaz, whom he linked up with earlier in the year.
“Nate Diaz represents BMF to the fullest,” he told us. “He’s a great guy. I’ve seen him, in the same gyms and stuff. We’ve been working together and I’ve been supporting him for a long time.”
As for ‘Tank’, Benavidez, at the time of speaking with Boxing Social, was yet to rekindle his relationship with Davis. But it was mainly because of where they are both situated in the country.
“He said to hit him up if I was ever in California and I’ve been in Miami, Phoenix … I haven’t had contact, but when I get to Vegas, I’m definitely going to hit him up because he was going to get some work in with me.”
Perhaps when they get that work in they’ll talk about a way they can share a second fight card in the near future.
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