Roy Jones Jr. Breaks Down Benavidez Vs Ramirez Ahead Of May 2nd Title Fight
Benavidez caused the same problem with opponent after opponent. Fighters may compete early on, but few maintain that level as the rounds build.
“Guys have good cycles, they don’t have good fights against him. In the end, they wear out mentally, physically, emotionally, and David Benavidez takes it and raises his hand,” Jones said in the Hall of Game.
That has been a key selling point for Benavidez. His pressure doesn’t always win in the first few minutes, but usually turns it into a full fight once the opponent starts reacting instead of acting.
Jones, however, doesn’t see Ramirez as helpless. He cited the Mexican southpaw’s experience, length, and strong style as reasons for a potentially difficult fight if Benavidez can’t break him early.
“If Zordo Ramirez can weather those storms without getting punished too much and keep that thing solid in the back, he’s got a shot,” Jones said.
Ramirez has won titles in multiple divisions and has shown that he can fight at a moderate pace without giving up cheap rounds. That can matter against a successful opponent when the trade is fast and chaotic.
Gilberto Ramirez has spent the last few years getting used to heavier weights, and his frame at cruiserweight is naturally wider than what David Benavidez has faced.
However, the punishment Benavidez took from Oleksandr Gvozdyk and David Morrell Jr. While he won both of those fights by unanimous decision, those victories were different in his pursuit and destruction” run at 168.
In his light heavyweight debut against Gvozdyk, Benavidez admitted to injuries, a torn hamstring, and cuts, which forced him to punch harder. He dominated the first round, but the punch stats showed more intensity in the later rounds.
Benavidez outshot Gvozdyk 107 to 57 in rounds 1 to 5. In the final seven rounds, that gap closed to a very slim 116 to 106.
Against Morrell, it was a bruising encounter where Morrell’s athleticism and power forced Benavidez to land the heavy shots. Although the scorecards were clear (118-108, 115-111, 115-111), Benavidez finished the fight looking more marked than usual.
The jump to fight Ramirez at cruiserweight is a 25-pound jump from Benavidez’s longtime super middleweight title. Critics argued that if Gvozdyk and Morrell were able to find slots at 175, a naturally larger champion like Ramirez would have the ability to ignore the “Monster’s” volume and put up more counters.
Ramirez thrives when he can use his reach to keep opponents on the receiving end of his punches. The big question is can Ramirez move enough to stay out of the fire? Since moving to cruiserweight, his footwork and ability to turn his opponents around has become incredibly sharp.
In his victories over Arsen Goulamirian and Chris Billam-Smith, he used his 6’2″ frame to reset the distance every time things got hairy. However, David Benavidez is a completely different animal to Billam-Smith.
While Ramirez’s moves looked big compared to the guys coming forward in a row, Benavidez is a master at cutting across the ring and throwing combinations that catch fighters or try to get away.
Ramirez tried to use the move against Dmitry Bivol at 175, and we saw how that went. He couldn’t keep up with the technical rhythm and ended up losing a clear decision. Benavidez is not as neat as Bivol, but his pressure is more physically wearing.
