{"id":442423,"date":"2026-02-24T05:14:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T05:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/442423\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T05:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T05:14:07","slug":"david-benavidez-recalls-hurting-gilberto-ramirez-in-sparring-ahead-of-cruiserweight-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/442423\/","title":{"rendered":"David Benavidez recalls hurting Gilberto Ramirez in sparring ahead of cruiserweight title fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/david-benavidez\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David Benavidez<\/a> is brimming with confidence, having previously shared rounds with his next opponent ahead of an audacious move up to cruiserweight.<\/p>\n<p>It was officially confirmed this weekend that <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/benavidez-vs-ramirez-fight-official\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the 29-year-old will face Gilberto \u2018Zurdo\u2019 Ramirez<\/a>, the unified champion at 200lbs, at Las Vegas\u2019 T-Mobile Arena on May 2.<\/p>\n<p>Like Benavidez, Ramirez became a world champion at 168lbs before moving up to light-heavyweight, where his only professional defeat came against Dmitry Bivol in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, the Mexican has unified the WBO and WBA world titles at cruiserweight after dethroning Arsen Goulamirian and Chris Billam-Smith, both via unanimous decision in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Having cemented his championship status with another convincing points victory, this time against Yuniel Dorticos in June, the 34-year-old is now considered one of his division\u2019s flagship fighters, alongside IBF world champion Jai Opetaia.<\/p>\n<p>Benavidez, meanwhile, has cemented himself as one of the leading operators at 175lbs following back-to-back unanimous decision victories over Oleksandr Gvozdyk and David Morrell, which preceded his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/live\/c3vn2p77np3t\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">seventh-round stoppage of Anthony Yarde<\/a> in November.<\/p>\n<p>The American\u2019s last outing also saw him defend his WBC title, while Bivol still holds the remaining three major belts at light-heavyweight.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the pair will eventually collide in an undisputed showdown for all the marbles but, until then, Benavidez has set his sights on becoming a three-division world champion.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/FZQQ23mtNyc?si=KkzVZfsGpQkveOjV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FightHype<\/a>, the \u2018Mexican Monster\u2019 acknowledged Ramirez\u2019s \u201cwarrior\u201d credentials while, in the same breath, claiming that he has previously hurt the two-weight world champion in sparring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve sparred \u2018Zurdo\u2019 a lot, so I can tell you that I know he knows, that I know, that I hurt his ass \u2013 and he knows that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it\u2019s going to be a great fight. Two Mexican warriors going at it [on] May [2], so let\u2019s get it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Benavidez was elevated from \u2018interim\u2019 to full WBC champion at 175lbs, but now looks to make his mark on the cruiserweight division by dethroning Ramirez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Benavidez is brimming with confidence, having previously shared rounds with his next opponent ahead of an audacious&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-442423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442423","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=442423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}