{"id":317633,"date":"2025-12-15T18:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/317633\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T18:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:31:10","slug":"eddie-hearn-doesnt-believe-david-benavidez-beats-jai-opetaia-unsure-on-zurdo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/317633\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn Doesn’t Believe David Benavidez Beats Jai Opetaia, Unsure On Zurdo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite being crowned the WBC light heavyweight champion a few months ago, David Benavidez<\/a> appears done with the weight division for the meantime.
Following his seventh-round stoppage win over Anthony Yarde<\/a> on November 22 at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Benavidez shared his next fight would take place at 200-pounds against unified WBA\/WBO champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez in May<\/a>.
Ramirez is slated to return from shoulder surgery in a title defence with Robin Safar on Jan. 16<\/a>, though if all goes to plan, Benavidez would be next for him four months later. <\/p>\n

In that scenario, promoter Eddie Hearn likes his chances in a pick ’em fight. If he attempts to take on Ring and IBF beltholder Opetaia though, it’s a different story. <\/p>\n

“I don’t think he beats Jai Opetaia,” Hearn told The Ring<\/a>. “I think he could beat Zurdo, but I’m not so sure.”
Much like Benavidez, Opetaia (29-0, 23 KOs) is fresh off his own destructive victory, an eighth-round stoppage of Huseyin Cinkara on December 8<\/a>. Immediately after pleasing his hometown fans at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, the Aussie called Ramirez out.<\/p>\n

“I needed that humble pie, watch this space. We want unifications fights, Zurdo, I’m chasing belts, I’ve been asking for them for a long time. But we’re gonna go back to the gym and sharpen up,” he said during his post-fight interview.<\/p>\n

Although widely recognized as two of the best cruiserweights around, a fight between them has failed to materialize. Ramirez last defended his unified titles with a workmanlike points win over former champion Yuniel Dorticos on June 28<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Hearn’s ideal world, Opetaia and Ramirez (48-1, 30 KOs) would get it on next. But, with Benavidez now readying himself to get his feet wet in the division, the longtime promoter believes an all-Mexican affair isn’t a bad idea. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“The Zurdo fight makes sense because it’s two Mexicans, and he can become a three-division world champion,” Hearn added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite being crowned the WBC light heavyweight champion a few months ago, David Benavidez appears done with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":["post-317633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-boxing-results","tag-disqualification","tag-draw","tag-fight","tag-fighter","tag-fighter-news","tag-knockout","tag-latest-boxing-matches","tag-ring","tag-ring-magazine","tag-split-decision","tag-sports","tag-technical-knockout","tag-the-ring","tag-top-fighters","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}