Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez puts his unified cruiserweight world championship titles on the line against challenger David Benavidez in a Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view on Prime Video event May 2 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
For both, it’s an opportunity to re-shape the world boxing landscape as the winner will feasibly become the de facto Cinco de Mayo headliner going forward when considering Benavidez’s growing cache as a pound-for-pound staple, and Ramirez’s body of work across multiple weight classes, too.
But it’s not the first time they’ll have thrown hands at each other as they famously sparred in 2016. Back then, ‘Zurdo’ recruited Benavidez to his camp to help him prepare for his first world title shot, against Arthur Abraham.
Ramirez beat Abraham by decision to claim the WBO super middleweight world title. He defended it five times, moved to light heavyweight, and won his next title at cruiserweight in 2024.
He defends the WBO and WBA titles against Benavidez in the coming month. Ramirez told fans, in a statement sent to Boxing Social, that its a box office event they won’t regret purchasing considering the bloodbath they endured when they trained together.
“Our sparring sessions would have been a great pay-per-view,” said Ramirez.
“We both know that each of us has a lot of skill that we’ll be bringing into the ring. But I’ve also grown a lot as a fighter since we sparred. I’ve gotten a lot more experience that I’m gonna take into this fight.”
It wasn’t until 2017 when Benavidez won his first world title, a vacant WBC belt he won after beating Ronald Gavril. He’s gone on to beat Anthony Dirrell, Caleb Plant, and Demetrius Andrade at 168 pounds before moving to light heavyweight to defeat Oleksandr Gvozdyk, David Morrell, and Anthony Yarde.
May 2, against Ramirez, will be the first time Benavidez fights at cruiserweight as a pro.
During that whole time, ‘Zurdo’ has been visualizing boxing Benavidez. “I’ve thought about fighting David for about 10 years,” he said. “I think we both wanted to fight each other for that long. Now the time is almost here.
“David is a great fighter,” he said of his rival. “I’ve been watching him a lot over the years and keeping an eye on him, knowing that one day we’d get in there together.”
Of course, with a quality main event like this, there is not just one narrative heading into the show. There is also the significance of a Cinco de Mayo fight without its previous headliner, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. Canelo is due to return in September. There are no guarantees he is ever the premier Cinco de Mayo fighter going forward.
For ‘Zurdo,’ it’s “an honor” for him to be in this position, he said in his statement to Boxing Social. “You have to be a great fighter and a big name to headline Cinco de Mayo Weekend. Now it’s my time.
“Fighting another Mexican is extra motivation. We’re making history. There’s never been a fight like this between Mexican fighters this big.
“It’s going to be an amazing night,” he finished. “We’re going to leave everything we have in the ring.”
