All it took was for a sparring session 10 years ago to convince David Benavidez that he’d one day fight Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez for real.
A pound-for-pound sensation thanks to brilliant wins over Caleb Plant, Demetrius Andrade, and Anthony Yarde across super middleweight and light heavyweight, Benavidez attempts to become a three-weight world boxing champion on Cinco de Mayo weekend when he jumps to cruiserweight to challenge ‘Zurdo’ for his unified WBA and WBO titles.
For the fighters involved, May 2 at the T-Mobile Arena won’t be the first time they’ve thrown hands as they’ve trained together with sparring sessions dating back to Benavidez helping Ramirez prepare for his Arthur Abraham win in 2016.
Ramirez secured the WBO super middleweight title that night. Then, after losing to Dmitry Bivol in his first big test in 2022, rebounded with a four-fight run including back-to-back decision wins over Chris Billam Smith and Yuniel Dorticos as 200-pound champ.
“We’ve had so many great sparring sessions and I told ‘Zurdo’ then, we’ll have to do this on pay-per-view one day,” Benavidez said in a statement sent to Boxing Social. “I was helping him get ready for Abraham and we had some great sessions. I knew he was gonna be one of those guys who would be around for a long time. Eventually we were gonna do this … now we’re going for two titles on May 2 and I’m very grateful.”
Benavidez is a core part of younger American impetus in the pound-for-pound rankings in the aftermath of 38-year-old Terence Crawford’s retirement, with Shakur Stevenson storming into the top five, Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez hanging tight, and Devin Haney joining them all, too.
It was Mike Tyson whom nicknamed Benavidez ‘The Mexican Monster’ for the way in which he fights by starting fast and only fighting harder as each and every round progresses. It has yielded fan-friendly battles, with Benavidez continually coming out on top.
“I feel like I’m on the cusp of being the face of boxing.”
Benavidez said if Ramirez wins, “his stock goes up,” adding: “There’s greatness on the other side of that tunnel for both of us. So we’re gonna come extremely prepared.”
He called Zurdo “a top fighter … a great fighter.”
Benavidez said it motivates him to do “extra reps with anything and everything I do. That’s just the way I fight. I want to earn the fans respect and go in there and put on a great fight. I want to make my own lane and achieve greatness.”
Ramirez recognized the work Benavidez gave him for that camp, a decade ago. “They helped me a lot for my first world title fight. [And now] we’re gonna make this an exciting fight.”
On the challenger, he said: “He’s the monster. He’s different. He used to beat up a lot of sparring partners. Now we’re here, we’re two warriors and we’re making history. I want to fight the best and he’s one of the best. I just want to give the fans who love this sport the best fights.”
Despite Benavidez’s pedigree, though, Ramirez appears confident about the result. “The titles are staying with Zurdo,” he said.