Unbeaten American to enter next world title fight.
David Benavidez (31-0, 25 KOs) is probably the best American fighter in the world who isn’t universally considered to be in the pound-for-pound top ten.
Of course, there are many who do have him on the list, but there are also many who don’t. Either way, the man who used to go by “El Bandera Rojas”, but is now mainly known as “The Mexican Monster”, is one of the top fighters in the sport.
Everyone knows the tale of Benavidez’s potential fight with Canelo Álvarez, known to many fans as “the one that got away”. While many fans called for this matchup, Canelo did not seem to be very interested, and that was even with Benavidez being the mandatory challenger for his WBC super-middleweight title (which Benavidez has twice held in the past).
After a long period of waiting, it became apparent that the fight was not going to happen, so Benavidez jumped up to light-heavyweight and beat former world champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk to win the WBC interim title.
He then defended this title over fellow former super-middleweight David Morrell and won the WBA (Regular) title in the process.
After Dmitry Bivol chose to vacate his WBC title, Benavidez was upgraded to full champion, and he defended his status with a beatdown of former two-time title challenger Anthony Yarde.
Benavidez made his intentions of moving up to cruiserweight clear, and how his first fight at the weight has officially been announced.
Benavidez will be running headlong into a world title fight with the WBA and WBO cruiserweight champion Gilberto Ramírez, a fight set for Cinco de Mayo weekend on the 2nd of May at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.
Ramírez (48-1, 30 KOs) is also a former super-middleweight champion and challenged Dmitry Bivol for his WBA light-heavyweight title in 2022. This would result in Ramírez’s first loss after going 44-0 to start his career.
Since this defeat, Ramírez has moved up to cruiserweight and gone 4-0, defeating Arsen Goulamirian to win the WBA title and Chris Billam-Smith to win the WBO. In doing so, Ramírez became the first cruiserweight champion in history from Mexico.
Last time out, Ramírez defended his titles against former champion Yuniel Dorticos, and a planned December defence against Robin Safar was cancelled due to an injury to Ramírez’s right hand.
Now Ramírez will be taking on the best opponent of his career since he fought Bivol, who Benavidez has expressed a desire to face should he come through Ramírez.
Both Benavidez (6’2″) and Ramírez (6’2½”) are far too massive to have continually made the super-middleweight limit, and even light-heavyweight was a stretch. At cruiserweight, they can presumably enjoy the full extent of their frames at optimum comfort and engage in a Hispanic shootout for the unified 200-pound championship.
Big names. Big power ⚡️ May 2nd belongs to the cruiserweights! Don’t miss David Benavidez 🆚 Zurdo Ramirez May 2nd LIVE at the T-mobile Arena!
𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇 the kick-off press conference 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄 Saturday Feb. 21st streaming on the 𝑷𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒆𝒓 𝑩𝒐𝒙𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 and… pic.twitter.com/rYKXGKCBnD
— Golden Boy (@GoldenBoyBoxing) February 20, 2026
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