Las Vegas, Nevada – David “El Monstro” Benavidez (32-0, 26 KOs) dared to be big and mighty just that Saturday night by becoming the first fighter to become a world champion in the 168-, 175- and 200-pound divisions.
No other fighter has achieved that feat until now. Benavidez dominated unified cruiserweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (48-2, 30 KOs). He landed his lightning combinations with precision, landing 56.8 percent of his power punches and dropping Zurdo in the fourth and sixth rounds (Compubox).
No other opponent has been as dominant against Ramirez. There was a huge difference in speed as Zurdo simply couldn’t defend or react quickly enough to dodge the onslaught. The big question for David was how would he perform at cruiserweight? He may have had the best performance of his career. The combination of speed, accuracy and power in a devastating offensive attack that was simply too much to handle.
His father and trainer, Jose Benavidez, said that 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 is now the face of boxing,” says Jose about David’s performance.
For a Mexican fighter, there are no bigger dates than Cinco De Mayo and Mexican Independence Day weekend, with El Monstro fighting in his first celebrated weekend, he can build on his excellent performance and begin the process of taking the reins from Canelo Alvarez, who is currently the Mexican superstar holding those dates.
David convincingly defeated the unified cruiserweight champion, and currently looks like the man to beat in the division. With Jai Opetaia teaming up with Zuffa Boxing, a matchup between the two could be tough. Benavidez expressed the difficulties of making such a match, as David believes that Zuffa’s position of not recognizing the four sanctioning bodies could cause a problem.
He has no interest in fighting for the Zuffa belt. Jai was stripped of his IBF belt in March and it is currently still vacant. Norair (Noel) Mikaelian is the WBC cruiserweight champion and a match with him could be possible in the near future. Before the match with Zurdo, David stated his intention to go back to 175 and fight either Dmitri Bivol or Artur Beterbiev.
After his dominating performance from the former unified champion, he may 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 is looking for greatness and wants to create a lasting legacy and will choose the path that will earn him that merit.
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Last updated on 2026/05/03 at 21:56
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