Las Vegas, Nevada – David “El Monstro” Benavidez (32-0, 26 KOs) dared to be great and accomplished just that Saturday night by becoming the first fighter to become a world champion within the 168, 175, and 200-pound divisions.
No other fighter had accomplished that feat until now. Benavidez defeated the unified cruiserweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (48-2, 30 KOs) dominantly. He landed his blistering combinations with precision, landing 56.8 percent of his power punches and dropping Zurdo in the fourth and sixth rounds (Compubox).
No other opponent had been so dominant against Ramirez. There was a great disparity in speed as Zurdo simply could not defend or react fast enough to evade the onslaught. The big question for David was how would he perform at cruiserweight? He may have had the best performance of his career. Combining speed, accuracy, and power into a devasting offensive attack that was simply too much to handle.
His father and trainer, Jose Benavidez stated David’s performance was the result of a very hard training camp spent preparing for the match. “We prepared, David Benavidez prepared intensively and he demonstrated it today. He was better and I believed he’s now the face of boxing,” said Jose of David’s performance.
For a Mexican fighter there aren’t any bigger dates than Cinco De Mayo and Mexican Independence Day weekend, with El Monstro fighting in his first celebrated weekend he can build upon his excellent showing and begin the process of taking the reins from Canelo Alvarez who is currently the Mexican superstar who holds those dates.
David convincingly defeated the unified cruiserweight champion presently appears as the man to beat in the division. With Jai Opetaia being with Zuffa Boxing a match between the two may be difficult. Benavidez expressed the difficulties in making such a match, as David believes Zuffa’s position of not recognizing the four sanctioning bodies could pose an issue.
He has no interest in fighting for the Zuffa belt. Jai was stripped of his IBF belt in March and it’s still presently vacant. Norair (Noel) Mikaelian is the WBC cruiserweight champion and a match with him could be possible in the near future. David stated before the match with Zurdo his intention to go back to 175 and fight Dmitry Bivol or Artur Beterbiev.
After his dominant performance of the former unified champion, he may potentially choose to become undisputed cruiserweight champion instead and capture the two remaining belts.
He now has options as to what he decides to do remains to be seen. He’s in search of greatness and wants to create a lasting legacy and will choose the path that will earn him those merits.
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Last Updated on 2026/05/03 at 9:56 PM
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