David Benavidez is talking about control ahead of his next fight against Gilberto Ramirez, but his recent performances leave one questioning whether discipline alone is enough.
He said emotion has hurt him in past fights when he didn’t like his opponent. “Once you hate somebody, all I think about is (expletive) him, but not in the right way,” Benavidez told Sean Zittel. That mindset, he explained, pulled him away from what he needed to do in the ring.
Against opponents he respects, he expects a different approach. “As soon as you fight with somebody that you’re kind of friends with, you start touching, you start working, then you get into your groove,” he said. He added that his plan is already set and there is “nothing he can say to me that will deter me.”
Benavidez tied his knockout talk to execution rather than chasing it. “The way I get a knockout is I put in the game plan, execute the game plan. I have to be on my P’s and Q’s,” he said. At the same time, his intention remains the same. “Every fight I try to do as much damage as possible.”
Recent battles raise questions about that approach. Against David Morrell and Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Benavidez maintained a steady pace and threw volume, but neither fighter came close to being stopped. Morrell had the sharper moments, dropping Benavidez and hurting him during exchanges.
Benavidez also dismissed weight concerns. Referring to Roy Jones Jr., he said his experience makes the difference. “I’ve had heavy weight loss my whole career. I know how to do it. I don’t think it will be a problem.”
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Last updated on 2026/04/16 at 19:26
