{"id":792986,"date":"2026-10-05T20:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T20:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/792986\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T20:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T20:08:08","slug":"robert-garcia-predicts-david-benavidez-vs-jai-opetaia-its-a-different-man-right-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/792986\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Garcia predicts David Benavidez vs Jai Opetaia: “It’s a different man right there”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top trainer Robert Garcia has predicted a potential clash between David Benavidez<\/a> and Jai Opetaia<\/a>, believing that one man is \u201cunbeatable\u201d.<\/p>\n

The two cruiserweights have verbally agreed to lock horns next year, with Las Vegas representing a likely destination for their Cinco de Mayo weekend showdown.<\/p>\n

Before that, though, Benavidez is expected to face WBC world champion Michal Cieslak in December<\/a>, as per the final fight on his existing deal with Al Haymon\u2019s Premier Boxing Champions.<\/p>\n

Should he emerge victorious, then the 29-year-old will hold three of the four major cruiserweight titles, having already dethroned Gilberto Ramirez for the WBO and WBA belts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He did so with a vicious sixth-round finish in May, becoming a three-division world champion in his first outing at 200lbs.<\/p>\n

Most would argue that Opetaia represents his most dangerous challenge, however, as the 31-year-old is a natural cruiserweight and has remained unbeaten in 31 fights.<\/p>\n

Even in his outing last month, when many felt he underperformed, the Australian scored a ninth-round stoppage over former world champion Noel Mikaelian.<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet while it was an impressive finish, coach Garcia has told ProBox TV<\/a> that, against Benavidez, Opetaia would not be afforded the opportunity to get his man out of there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do pick Benavidez. That\u2019s why he\u2019s called \u2018The Monster\u2019. He\u2019s unbeatable. I see him going to heavyweight and actually doing good there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Opetaia took some hard punches [against Mikaelian]; he got stunned a little bit. If that\u2019s Benavidez, he doesn\u2019t let him go. Benavidez is always in great shape, ready to go all twelve rounds into a war. It\u2019s a different man right there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only is Benavidez one of the sport\u2019s flagship fighters from an ability perspective but, commercially, the Mexican-American is also becoming a mainstream attraction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top trainer Robert Garcia has predicted a potential clash between David Benavidez and Jai Opetaia, believing that one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-792986","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\/792986","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=792986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}