Boxing
Roy Jones sees one path for Gilberto Ramirez to beat David Benavidez
Published
1 month agoon
Benavidez created the same problem for opponent after opponent. Players may be competitive at the beginning, but few maintain that level once the rounds are over.
“Guys are having good rounds, they’re not putting up good fights with him. Ultimately, they get exhausted mentally, physically and emotionally, and David Benavidez takes over and gets his hand raised,” Jones told the Hall of Game.
This became a key advantage for Benavidez. His pressure doesn’t always lend a hand in the first few minutes, but it often changes the entire fight when opponents start reacting instead of working.
But Jones doesn’t see Ramirez as a helpless underdog. He cited the Mexican southerner’s experience, length and consistent style as reasons why the fight could become arduous if Benavidez is unable to break him down early.
“If Zordo Ramirez can weather these storms without taking too much of a penalty and keeping the ball tight on defense, he has a chance,” Jones said.
Ramirez has won titles in multiple divisions and has shown that he can fight at a pace without missing many rounds. This can make a difference against an opponent who thrives when rallies become rushed and tumultuous.
Gilberto Ramirez has spent the last few years acclimating to the higher weight classes, and his cruiserweight frame is naturally broader than what David Benavidez faced.
However, Benavidez’s punishment against Oleksandr Gvozdyk and David Morrell Jr. was obvious. Although he won both fights by unanimous decision, those victories were different from his 168 search-and-destroy streak.
In his lithe heavyweight debut against Gwozdyk, Benavidez admitted to suffering a torn ligament in his hand and a cut that forced him to box more conservatively. He dominated the first half, but his punch stats showed a significant sharpening in the later rounds.
Benavidez outscored Gvozdyk 107 to 57 in rounds 1 through 5. That gap narrowed to a much smaller 116 to 106 in the final seven rounds.
The match against Morrell was a close one, with Morrell’s athleticism and strength forcing Benavidez to take weighty shots. Even though the scorecards were clear (118-108, 115-111, 115-111), Benavidez finished the fight with a better result than usual.
The jump to fight Ramirez for the cruiserweight title represents a 25-pound escalate over Benavidez’s longtime home at super middleweight. Critics say that if Gvozdyk and Morrell were able to find openings at 175, a naturally bigger champion like Ramirez would have the stamina to ignore the “Monsters” volume and land more counter punches.
Ramirez thrives when he can apply his reach to keep opponents on the receiving end of his punches. The gigantic question is: Will Ramirez be able to move enough to actually stay out of the line of fire? Since moving up to cruiserweight, his footwork and ability to turn opponents around has been surprisingly excellent.
In his victories over Arsene Goulamirian and Chris Billam-Smith, he used his 180 cm frame to reset the distance each time the situation became more arduous. However, David Benavidez is a completely different animal than Billam-Smith.
While Ramirez’s moves looked great against fighters attacking in a straight line, Benavidez is a master at cutting down the ring and throwing combinations that catch fighters even as they try to move away.
Ramirez tried to apply the move in his match against Dmitry Bivol at 175 pounds and we saw how it went. He was unable to maintain the technical rhythm and ultimately lost by clear decision. Benavidez isn’t as trim as Bivol, but his pressure is much more physically taxing.
Robert Segal is a boxing reporter at Boxing News 24 with over a decade of experience covering fight news, previews and analysis. Known for his first-hand reporting and in-ring perspective, he delivers authoritative coverage of champions, challengers and emerging talent from around the world.
You may like
Boxing
Trainer Buddy McGirt Picks Mayweather vs. Pacquiao 2 Winner Based on One ‘Plain Fact’
Published
1 hour agoon
June 2, 2026
Former two-division world champion and top trainer Buddy McGirt has suggested that one fighter, between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, will likely go into the fight with one clear advantage.
According to reports, both pound-for-pound legends will face each other in a professional rematch scheduled for September 26.
It was originally proposed to take place at the Sphere in Las Vegas on September 19 just for those dealing with the Netflix event to choose a different date and location.
However, despite the uncertainty, it appears that both fighters have agreed to collide in a fully sanctioned fight, with Mayweather graciously putting his 50-0 record on the line.
The 49-year-old hasn’t fought professionally since a 10th-round knockout of Conor McGregor in 2017, which came just over two years after he edged ‘Pac Man’ by unanimous decision.
Pacquiao, on the other hand, has competed in eight professional fights since their first meeting, most recently drawing to a 12-round draw with then-WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios last July.
McGirt said that because of this increased activity in recent years ESNEWS that it favors the 47-year-old Filipino, even if neither player can realistically claim to be a role model of activism.
“I am [going to] follow Pacquiao for the straightforward fact that Floyd didn’t fight – e.g [in] fight-fight – for how long?
“These exhibition fights, you can’t really count them. Then again, I’ll go with Pacquiao, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Floyd manages to do it.”
Although Pacquiao has fought more recently than Mayweather, his draw with Barrios ended a nearly four-year hiatus that followed his unanimous decision loss to Yordenis Ugas.
When Fury later tried to lure Joshua into the ring to restart the fight, Joshua says he had other things on his mind.
“I was there on a scouting mission. I wanted to see that this was the guy I wanted to fight, right? I was there to see what would happen, how he was doing, and I saw some good things, but I also saw some bad things,” Joshua told Mr. Verzace in Ring Magazine.
It’s amazing how disconnected the sound of Joshua’s breakdown is. He looks at a guy who’s just slogged through a twelve-round track meet without posing any threat, and treats it like a deep, philosophical chess match in which he “saw some good things and some bad things.”
Good things? What good things? Fury looked exactly like he is: a middle-aged fighter on a long hiatus who completely lacked the trigger-pulling ability that made him elite. Makhmudov is the definition of a restricted, lumbering domestic-level player who would be completely consumed by any legitimate top-15 player, let alone a top-tier player.
The fact that Fury couldn’t or wouldn’t get him out of there tells you everything you need to know about what his reflexes and strength are like right now.
“I would have liked to see a break in the game,” Joshua said.
Joshua stating that he would “prefer to see downtime” and noting his lack of “intent to harm him” is the understatement of the century. He treats the glaring, neon-lit sign of the fall as if it were just a minor tactical choice by Fury. Anyone with eyes could see that Fury was working difficult.
You wonder if Joshua is just trying to be extra polite, or if he’s so programmed into his own bubble that he can’t just come out and state the obvious: the version of Fury that ran the division is gone.
“I didn’t really see any intention to hurt Makhmudov at any point,” Joshua said.
Joshua is a leading corporate brand and knows that completely destroying a product kills pay-per-view purchase rates before contracts are even signed. If he goes out there and tells the public that Fury is completely shot and washed, he undermines the entire value of their massive domestic clash. Keeping the ambiguity in the “good things and bad things” routine keeps the plot alive and protects the box office.
AJ always had this ponderous, literal way of processing things, almost like he was reading cue cards in his own mind. He often has difficulty analyzing things dynamically on the fly, which is why his judgments can seem so basic and distant. Instead of seeing a guy doing physical work and losing his reflexes, Joshua just looks at it as a checklist: did he win? Yes. Did he stop him? NO.
It’s a combination of corporate protection and a real lack of deep analytical vision. He can’t or won’t see Fury fighting a guy who has no interest in lasting twelve rounds against an elite heavyweight.
“Fury is just another number,” AJ said. I don’t put him on a pedestal. He is not above anyone.
This is the one moment where the corporate filter shifted and the real, unvarnished Joshua emerged.
When he says, “Fury is just another number,” he removes all the hype, the accumulation of promotion, and the mythical status that has surrounded Fury for years. This is the behavior of a fighter who, on a scouting mission, looked around the ring, saw a middle-aged guy fighting a tight-fisted opponent, and realized the boogeyman was gone.
For a long time, Fury occupied this untouchable space in British boxing, but his performance against Makhmudov clearly dispelled Joshua’s illusions. The saying, “He is above no one” is the most telling part. It shows that Joshua finally sees him as a human opponent who can be defeated, rather than as an unbeatable heavyweight king. Even if Joshua’s overall analysis is basic, this particular realization represents a huge shift in psychology leading up to their fight.

Boxing
Shawn Porter Comments on David Benavidez vs. Dmitry Bivol: ‘He Has the Style to Beat Him’
Published
5 hours agoon
June 2, 2026
One of the most coveted fights in boxing is the lithe heavyweight clash between unified world champion Dmitry Bivol and pound-for-pound star David Benavidez, and now two-time welterweight champion Shawn Porter has shared his thoughts on the proposed clash.
When Benavidez got back on his feet and fought for the unified cruiserweight world titles last month, many doubted whether his punching power would translate to the 200-pound division, but “The Mexican Monster” quickly proved that it would. stopping Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez in six rounds.
Since then, all the talk has been whether Benavidez could return to the lithe heavyweight scene and face Bivol, but suggestions of a catchweight fight have raised concerns about whether the 29-year-old will actually be able to drop down to 175 pounds.
I keep talking your own podcastPorter declared that Bivol had the style to hand the “Mexican Monster” the first defeat of his career, believing that the way to defeat the three-division world champion was to snail-paced him down.
“Bivol was Bivol [against Michael Eifert]. Will Bivol beat David Benavidez? I think so [even] If sparring was going well for David back then, there is still so much to consider, so many things to consider.
“I think that’s the style you need to beat or compete with Benavidez. You have to be quick, but also have a certain power and pop that Benavidez has to respect and be more calculated.”
“If you snail-paced down Benavidez, you’ll have a better chance of beating him.”
Despite the ‘Mexican Monster”s wishes to face Bivol, there appear to be obstacles to the fight taking place as the WBO has ordered Bivol to defend his world titles against Liverpool’s Callum Smith, while a trilogy fight with Artur Beterbiev is also being discussed.
Trainer Buddy McGirt Picks Mayweather vs. Pacquiao 2 Winner Based on One ‘Plain Fact’
“Fury is just another number”
“Boxing is not broken” – Ed Pereira presents a vision for the future of the sport
Trending
-
Opinions & Features1 year agoPacquiao vs marquez competition: History of violence
-
MMA1 year agoDmitry Menshikov statement in the February fight
-
Results1 year agoStephen Fulton Jr. becomes world champion in two weight by means of a decision
-
Results1 year agoKeyshawn Davis Ko’s Berinchyk, when Xander Zayas moves to 21-0
-
Video1 year agoFrank Warren on Derek Chisora vs Otto Wallin – ‘I THOUGHT OTTO WOULD GIVE DEREK PROBLEMS!’
-
Analysis1 year agoRobert Garcia discusses the debate on the greatest Mexican warrior in history
-
Video1 year ago‘DEREK CHISORA RETIRE TONIGHT!’ – Anthony Yarde PLEADS for retirement after WALLIN
-
Results1 year agoLive: Catterall vs Barboza results and results card



