![\"Gilberto](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2273782791-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe pageantry, the mariachis, the combat.<\/p>\n
Cinco de Mayo weekend holds a special place in boxing history, a slot in which some of the greatest fighters \u2014 including many with ties to Mexico \u2014 have made a name for themselves on the sport\u2019s biggest stage. Many have watched, including David Benavidez, who gets his turn in that spotlight on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s all I grew up on,\u201d Benavidez said. \u201cWe used to watch the fights with Cesar Chavez on May 5, Oscar De La Hoya, Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, Floyd Mayweather, even Canelo (\u00c1lvarez)\u2019s fights. \u2026 Cinco de Mayo. It\u2019s a big date. It\u2019s a big party for all Mexican people and all the boxing fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benavidez, the WBC light heavyweight titleholder and two-time super middleweight champion, is moving up in weight to take on WBA\/WBO cruiserweight champ Gilberto \u201cZurdo\u201d Ramirez on Saturday night (which is May 2) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been blessed with so many great fights on Cinco de Mayo that I\u2019m just grateful to be chosen to give the sport another great fight,\u201d Benavidez said.<\/p>\n
Benavidez, 29, is 31-0 with 25 knockouts, and there is some irony that he will be taking \u00c1lvarez\u2019s traditional Cinco de Mayo spot. Many feel that \u00c1lvarez, who is sidelined after elbow surgery, has been ducking Benavidez for years. (\u00c1lvarez has not returned to the ring since losing to Terence Crawford in September.)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big deal, man. I\u2019m very excited,\u201d Benavidez said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be just the face of Mexican boxing, but for the whole sport. People will see that I am a monster in the ring with tremendous heart, who leaves it all on the line for his fans every single night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benavidez plans to move back down in weight to fight Dmitry Bivol if he beats Ramirez. That would be a tougher camp than this one, as not cutting weight to 175 pounds has allowed the Phoenix-born Benavidez to occasionally hit the drive-thru window.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been eating Big Macs every night, and drinking a large soda every day,\u201d he said, laughing, during a Zoom interview. \u201c\u2026 I\u2019m just very happy and charged up because I don\u2019t really have to lose weight, and that\u2019s something that\u2019s new to me as a professional. Been 13 years. I think this is going to be the best I\u2019ve looked in any fight thus far.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is not looking past Ramirez, who is 48-1 with 30 knockouts and should have plenty of support among Mexican fans because he is from Mazatl\u00e1n.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Gilberto \u201cZurdo\u201d Ramirez is a champion at 200 pounds.<\/p>\n
Benavidez and Ramirez know each other well. They have sparred close to a hundred times, up to six rounds a session.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sparred against him the first time when I was 17. And the last time I was 23,\u201d Benavidez said. \u201cThere\u2019s already information I\u2019ve learned, and that\u2019s stayed in my head. And there\u2019s also new information I\u2019ve learned just watching his fights and just stuff I do now better.\u201d<\/p>\n
If one were to think that his father and trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr., was trying to temper that confidence, one would be wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, sparring doesn\u2019t mean anything. When you\u2019re in there in front of all these people in small gloves, it\u2019s a different story,\u201d Jose Benavidez said in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n
His son respects Ramirez\u2019s jab and body shots and acknowledges that they are good friends. But fighting is different.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing about boxing is you could be friends and there could be respect, but that goes away when you walk in the ring. I enjoy beating up people too much,\u201d David Benavidez said. \u201cHe\u2019s the champion, you know what I mean? You\u2019ve got to give him credit for that. It\u2019s gonna be a great fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fact that the bout features two fighters of Mexican descent is not lost on Jose Benavidez, who was born in Mexico City and moved with his family to the United States when he was 11. Now, he will be walking with his son through a delirious crowd of fans on one of the biggest showcase weekends for boxing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means the whole world to me, you know, because those days were held by legends,\u201d Jose Benavidez said. \u201c\u2026 We\u2019re not going to let this opportunity go. We have been preparing ourselves for this since he was 2 years old, and David is at his best. This is his era, and he is going to show why he is the face of boxing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pageantry, the mariachis, the combat. Cinco de Mayo weekend holds a special place in boxing history, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-642748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}