On Saturday, May 2, one of the biggest fights of the year takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, when Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez puts his WBA and WBO unified cruiserweight world championship belts on the line against rising pound-for-pound talent, David Benavidez, atop a Premier Boxing Champions card on Prime Video pay-per-view.
The bout is one of the biggest of the year, not least because it brings together a two-weight champion in Benavidez, who enters the ring this time as a challenger, but armed with extraordinary big-fight experience in the Fight Capital of the World, having beaten Caleb Plant, Demetrius Andrade, and David Morrell, among others in the city.
In the champion, ‘Zurdo’, there is a fighter who has boxed through multiple divisions but appears to be settling into the groove as a 200-pound force.
That this fight features two Mexican fighters, competing on the weekend closest to Cinco de Mayo, during a weekend in which Mexican high-rollers descend on Vegas in masses, with mariachi trumpets and the Mexican flag flapping in the breeze of truck beds revving up and down the Strip only adds to the spectacle of the holiday, and fight night.
It should perhaps not be too much of a surprise that word from Mexican media suggests it is the challenger, Benavidez, rather than the champion, Ramirez, who is the favorite heading into the contest.
For La Opinion, there appears praise for Benavidez who continues “his strategy of taking on the most demanding challenges in modern boxing.”
It said: “The fighter enters this bout with the intention of handing his compatriot only the second defeat of his professional career.”
ESPN Deportes, meanwhile, highlighted how the fight is a milestone because it marks “the first time two Mexican boxers have contested a championship in a weight class above 168 pounds. Quoting ‘Zurdo’, Deportes reports “a war” couild unfold as the champion vows “to give the entire Mexican people a great celebration on May 2.”
The general feeling is that Ramirez is overlooked despite winning a world title and unifying in a division that Benavidez has yet to compete in having boxed previously at light heavyweight and, before that, super middleweight.
It will likely be a high-volume war, Mexican media says, with mid to late rounds decisive in a decision that, should, favor the challenger.
