{"id":597112,"date":"2026-04-11T13:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T13:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/597112\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T13:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T13:42:16","slug":"david-benavidez-says-boxing-legend-is-the-hardest-puncher-hes-ever-been-hit-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/597112\/","title":{"rendered":"David Benavidez says boxing legend is the hardest puncher he&#8217;s ever been hit by"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/david-benavidez\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David Benavidez<\/a> has named the boxing legend who hit him the hardest.<\/p>\n<p>Benavidez became the youngest super-middleweight world champion in boxing history when he outpointed Ronald Gavril via split-decision back in 2017, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/boxing\/news\/dmitry-bivol-vacates-wbc-light-heavyweight-title-sanctioning-body-promotes-david-benavidez-to-full-champion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">before capturing the WBC light-heavyweight crown last year.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Next month, the <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/roy-jones-benavidez-ramirez-double-down\/#:~:text=When%20the%20fight%20was%20announced,he%20going%20to%20beat%20Zurdo.\u201d\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">29-year-old next makes the jump up to cruiserweight<\/a>, where he attempts to dethrone unified WBA and WBC world champion Gilberto \u2018Zurdo\u2019 Ramirez in a captivating Cinco De Mayo clash.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst many think Ramirez will be Benavidez\u2019s most difficult test yet, the Phoenix-born phenomenon has shared the ring with legends behind the scenes.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Uh9wmNpFtPo?si=GyE9ihwLgb2r8q05\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018BS w\/ Jake Paul\u2019 podcast<\/a>, Benavidez recalled the time he was hurt by middleweight great Gennady Golovkin when sparring \u2018GGG\u2019 as a teenager.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI sparred him and when I first saw him getting ready he gave me the coldest stare. I will never forget it, he is not dogging you but he is looking at you like \u2018yo, you are in for something right now\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is why I stayed with Golovkin the whole time and why I became his main sparring partner; we were in sparring and we both went for the left-hook to the body at the same time and we both hit each other. Boom. I get hurt and he gets hurt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know he got hurt because I heard him grunt and he hurt me, so we both just kind of looked at each other and stepped back. From there, I sparred him until I was like 20 years old, I was his main sparring partner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was the hardest puncher that I have ever been in the ring with but he is also very intelligent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kazakh powerhouse Golovkin is viewed as one of the best middleweights of all time, with 37 of his 42 victories coming by knockout.<\/p>\n<p>He most memorable fights arguably came when he was involved in an epic trilogy against <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/canelo\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Canelo Alvarez<\/a>, with the third meeting between the pair coming in September 2022, which has proven to be the last time that Golovkin stepped inside the ring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Benavidez has named the boxing legend who hit him the hardest. Benavidez became the youngest super-middleweight world&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-597112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}