{"id":901629,"date":"2026-09-19T11:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T11:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/901629\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T11:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T11:54:11","slug":"teddy-atlas-offers-verdict-on-david-benavidez-vs-jai-opetaia-war-he-might-have-the-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/901629\/","title":{"rendered":"Teddy Atlas offers verdict on David Benavidez vs Jai Opetaia war: &#8220;He might have the edge&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Teddy Atlas has highlighted a key advantage of <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/david-benavidez\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David Benavidez<\/a>, which <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/jai-opetaia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jai Opetaia<\/a> must attempt to nullify if they end up colliding next year.<\/p>\n<p>The two cruiserweights have verbally agreed to lock horns in 2027, with Benavidez acknowledging the Australian as a worthy opponent for Cinco de Mayo weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Before targeting their potential showdown in May, though, \u2018The Mexican Monster\u2019 is expected to face WBC champion Michal Cieslak on December 12.<\/p>\n<p>Following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.co.uk\/boxing\/story\/_\/id\/49923376\/opetaia-rocks-mikaelian-9th-round-tko-faces-ring-benavidez\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Opetaia\u2019s ninth-round stoppage of Noel Mikealian<\/a> last weekend, the WBC cruiserweight title became vacant and Cieslak was elevated from \u2018interim\u2019 to full champion.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, Benavidez is set to enter a three-belt unification match after <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/gilberto-ramirez-vs-david-benavidez-live\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">dethroning Gilberto Ramirez for the WBO and WBA titles<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>By scoring a sixth-round finish, the Mexican-American not only became a three-division world champion but also demonstrated his speed and power at 200lbs.<\/p>\n<p>Top trainer Atlas has therefore suggested on <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/llfc-euq_04?si=9j8AAin6apYLo2WR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">his YouTube channel<\/a> that these attributes, combined with his punches in bunches, could see the 29-year-old defeat Opetaia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s got the quicker hands \u2013 I think that\u2019s one advantage. But he\u2019s got power, too \u2013 just like Opetaia. And he\u2019s a warrior \u2013 just like Opetaia. They\u2019re both undefeated; they\u2019re both champions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Benavidez is] a guy, though, that throws with speed and power and punches in clusters. And that can be a problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can time it \u2026 but that might give [Benavidez] an edge. Opetaia might have to hurt him to slow him down and win the fight [on points]. It\u2019s hard to visualise Opetaia outworking him when it comes to volume.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, Opetaia is unlikely to match Benavidez\u2019 tremendous punch output but, as the naturally bigger man, he may find success in other areas of their hoped-for contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teddy Atlas has highlighted a key advantage of David Benavidez, which Jai Opetaia must attempt to nullify if&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-901629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901629","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=901629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}