Benavidez has created the identical problem for rival after rival. Fighters may compete early, but few keep that level once the rounds construct.
“Guys have good rounds, they don’t have good fights against him. Ultimately, they wear down mentally, physically, emotionally, and David Benavidez takes over and gets his hand raised,” Jones said on Hall of Game.
That has change into the important thing selling point of Benavidez. His pressure doesn’t all the time win the primary couple of minutes, however it often changes the total fight once opponents begin reacting as an alternative of working.
Jones, nonetheless, doesn’t see Ramirez as a helpless underdog. He pointed to the Mexican southpaw’s experience, length, and regular style as reasons the fight could change into difficult if Benavidez cannot break him down early.
“If Zordo Ramirez can weather those storms without taking an excessive amount of punishment and keep that thing tight into the back half, he’s got a shot,” Jones said.
Ramirez has won titles in multiple divisions and has shown he can fight at a measured pace without giving rounds away cheaply. Which will matter against an opponent who thrives when exchanges change into rushed and chaotic.
Gilberto Ramirez has spent the previous few years acclimating to the upper weights, and his frame at cruiserweight is of course broader than what David Benavidez has faced.
Nevertheless, the punishment Benavidez took against Oleksandr Gvozdyk and David Morrell Jr. was obvious. While he won each fights by unanimous decision, those victories were different from his seek and destroy”runs at 168.
In his light heavyweight debut against Gvozdyk, Benavidez admitted to injuries, a torn hand ligament, and a cut, which forced him to box more conservatively. He dominated the primary half, however the punch stats showed a big tightening within the later rounds.
Benavidez outlanded Gvozdyk 107 to 57 in rounds 1 through 5. In the ultimate seven rounds, that gap closed to a much narrower 116 to 106.
Against Morrell, it was a bruising encounter where Morrell’s athleticism and power forced Benavidez to soak up heavy shots. Although the scorecards were clear (118-108, 115-111, 115-111), Benavidez finished the fight looking more marked up than usual.
The jump to fight Ramirez for the cruiserweight title represents a 25-pound increase from Benavidez’s longtime home at super middleweight. Critics argue that if Gvozdyk and Morrell were in a position to find openings at 175, a naturally larger champion like Ramirez can have the sturdiness to disregard the “Monster” volume and land more counters.
Ramirez thrives when he can use his reach to maintain opponents at the tip of his punches. The large query is can Ramirez move enough to truly stay out of the road of fireplace? Since moving to cruiserweight, his footwork and talent to show his opponents have been surprisingly sharp.
In his wins over Arsen Goulamirian and Chris Billam-Smith, he was using his 6’2″ frame to reset the gap each time things got hairy. Nevertheless, David Benavidez is a very different animal from Billam-Smith.
While Ramirez’s movement looked great against guys who come forward in straight lines, Benavidez is a master at cutting off the ring and throwing in mixtures that catch fighters at the same time as they’re attempting to move away.
Ramirez tried to make use of movement against Dmitry Bivol at 175, and we saw how that went. He couldn’t sustain with the technical rhythm and ended up losing a transparent decision. Benavidez isn’t as neat as Bivol, but his pressure is way more physically wearing.
