Can David Benavidez’s all-action style make him boxing’s next star?
In May 2013, Gennadiy “GGG” Golovkin was at The Summit Gym in Big Bear Lake, California, making remaining preparations to defend his WBA middleweight title in opposition to Matthew Macklin. Golovkin was nonetheless on the rise with a powerful knockout and title protection streak whereas additionally being on the verge of being acknowledged as probably the greatest pound-for-pound fighters on the earth. Despite all of this, Golovkin’s coach, Abel Sanchez, could not assist however exit of his method to gush over a 16-year-old sparring accomplice who had a granite chin, unbelievable hand pace and — as boxing trainers are likely to say about extremely valued sparring companions — was giving Golovkin and everybody within the health club “good work.”
Sanchez predicted again then that {the teenager}, who was barely sufficiently old to drive however was standing toe to toe with grown males with established boxing pedigrees, would turn into a world champion.
That teenager was David Benavidez.
“He had a lot of gumption for a 16-year-old to want to spar with a seasoned pro,” Sanchez informed ESPN. “I thought he had good skills and a bright future. He was developing the hand speed and combination punching back then and has matured into an exceptional fighter.”
Thirteen years later, Benavidez (31-0, 25 KOs) is a two-division world champion and ESPN’s No. 5 pound-for-pound fighter. From his willingness to face all comers to a style that produces fireworks, the traits that Sanchez noticed within the teenager are matured and refined.
Benavidez’s style has made him a fighter who does not know the that means of “cruising to victory.” Every second of a Benavidez combat is a state of affairs the place he’s attempting to interrupt his opponent by any means vital. His mindset results in riveting fights that, at the least for him, are all fuel, no brakes. That method has earned him respect from his friends and followers alike, one thing he is been searching for since he left his house as an adolescent to pursue greatness.
A pivotal second for Benavidez may nonetheless be forward. If he defeats unified cruiserweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez on Saturday (PBC on Prime Video PPV, 8 p.m. ET), it could not solely add a major title to his résumé but in addition permit him to maneuver past fixed comparisons to perennial pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez, the long-discussed combat between them that by no means materialized and the the chance to take the baton from Canelo as one of the best Mexican fighter of his era.
“I don’t just want to be the face of Mexican boxing or even boxing; I want to be that face of entertainment, period,” Benavidez informed ESPN. “I want to be that fighter who you know you’re going to get in an action-packed fight no matter who he’s fighting against. Once you see me fight that one time, I guarantee you that you will never stop watching me.”
In a world the place leveraging social media as a advertising and marketing device, defending undefeated information and manufacturing beef are the recipe for producing curiosity, Benavidez eschews the concept of promoting himself, as a substitute counting on a easy idea that he is carried since his early years when he was studying easy methods to jab.
“I just like beating people up.”
JOSE BENAVIDEZ SR. had a tough upbringing, from working within the fields of Sinaloa, Mexico, at age 11 to his teenage years in California full of violence, medicine, weapons and gangs. The chaos in his life led him to consider that he would not dwell lengthy sufficient to develop gray in his beard. He felt haunted, a lot in order that when he and his Ecuadorian spouse introduced their two sons into the world after transferring to Phoenix within the Nineties, the one factor he wished was for them to have the flexibility to defend themselves.
“I wanted to show them everything that I could in case something happened to me and they needed to protect themselves,” Benavidez Sr. informed ESPN. “I wanted to make warriors.”
David and his older brother, Jose Benavidez Jr., have been thrown into each sport from baseball to distance operating to check their bodily capacity, however it was boxing that caught with each boys. Jose Jr. was a prodigy, combating elementary faculty youngsters of his age in novice boxing matches and later turning into the youngest ever Golden Gloves champion at 16. David got here alongside later, with a lot much less fanfare, however was noticeably gifted with outstanding hand pace. Benavidez Sr. boasts about David having his first boxing match at 2 years outdated, however it was his older brother who was the agent of chaos largely chargeable for cultivating David’s aptitude for throwing arms.
“My dad didn’t know how we really were at school,” Jose Jr. informed ESPN. “I used to make him fight because I wanted to fight. I’d always pick the kids who had older brothers around my age so if they jumped in, I would be there to fight them.”
When they weren’t boxing within the health club, David and Jose Jr. have been sharpening their instruments in opposition to any neighborhood child who wished to check them. Jose Jr. loved beginning fights and having David end them. When you converse to them, you rapidly understand Jose Jr. fought as a result of he wished to and David fought as a result of he needed to.
“My brother was a knucklehead who made me fight everybody in the neighborhood,” David mentioned. “I was the calm guy. I didn’t like to fight people in the street but would if I had to. I always liked fighting, though. I was born into it and have spent my entire life trying to get better at it.”
After Benavidez Sr. and his spouse separated in 2000, Jose Jr. moved to California along with his father, whereas David remained in Arizona along with his mom, Alma, and youthful sister, Isabel. Jose Jr. thrived within the amateurs whereas David went by a tough stretch throughout which he wasn’t in a position to channel his pure capacity into boxing. By age 13, his weight had climbed to round 250 kilos. Meanwhile, Jose Jr. constructed a 120-5 novice report and turned professional in 2010. Jose Jr. remembers seeing his brother for the primary time in two years when he visited him in Arizona shortly after Jose Jr.’s professional debut and being surprised by how off form he was. Junior refused to observe his brother eat his life away and hatched a plan to assist David earlier than it was too late.
“I wasn’t going to let him waste his ability,” Jose Jr. mentioned. “I picked him up from my mother and took him to California with me. My mother called and asked where he was at because he had school. I told her, ‘I’m sorry to tell you, Ma, but David isn’t coming back anymore.’ She was mad and didn’t talk to me for a year because I kidnapped my brother, but I wasn’t going to allow him to waste his talent and took him with me to Wild Card Boxing Club.”
David dropped out of highschool, and Jose Jr. and his father threw David to the wolves at Wild Card, the health club in Hollywood owned by famend coach Freddie Roach. Jose Jr. remembers everybody scoffing at his obese brother however having a change of coronary heart after getting into the ring with him.
“He just started breaking motherf—ers apart,” Jose Jr. mentioned. “I always knew what my brother had. I just had to bring it out of him.”
Rather than emulate his older brother’s novice profession, David opted to spend the next few years combating off the additional weight. He plied his craft primarily as a sparring accomplice at gyms all around the nation, standing throughout the ring from former champions akin to Kelly Pavlik and Peter Quillin. That plan not solely bought him in form but in addition molded his style into the thrilling fighter who’s all the time trying to harm his opponent.
“I have never tried to outpoint somebody in a fight,” Benavidez mentioned. “I was always sparring against older guys who had more experience, and most of them tried to run through me. There was no point system; it was either kill or be killed for me. It was a real fight whenever I stepped into the ring. No judges. I had to defend myself from not getting knocked out and would end up getting the best of those guys.”
The Benavidez brothers relocated again to Arizona in 2014 and burned by the opposition, with Jose Jr. being the primary to win a title that very same 12 months by beating Mauricio Herrera for the interim WBA junior welterweight belt. David was working his approach up, stopping his first seven opponents. Jose Jr.’s checking account grew whereas David was nonetheless making a reputation for himself.
Everything modified for the brothers in 2016 when Jose Jr. was shot in the leg whereas strolling his canine in Phoenix. The incident shattered his knee and put his championship goals on pause. Around the identical time, the brothers misplaced two relations, with the demise of his grandmother and his uncle being murdered. David chugged alongside, carrying the burden of each his and his brother’s aspirations.
“When I was a kid until I turned about 20 years old, I was angry at my dad because of that, because I didn’t have a childhood,” he mentioned. “Now that I’m older, I see it and I talked to my dad and told him thank you very much for everything you did for me. … So many things happened to me and so many people I couldn’t be there for in their last moments because of boxing. We’ve sacrificed everything to boxing. It’s a difficult life, a difficult path, but this is what we wanted and we achieved it, and we’re still giving it our all because many things happened that helped us get there.”
The brothers relocated again to Los Angeles and David gained the WBC tremendous middleweight title in 2017 at age 20, making him the youngest champion within the division’s historical past. With success got here cash and Benavidez drifted right into a stint of self-destructive partying that finally led to him dropping the title with out a combat when he tested positive for cocaine in 2018 and was suspended.
Looking again, Benavidez mentioned that he wanted that to occur as early because it did so he may study from his mistake, refocus and get again on monitor.
“I had to get that out of my system,” he mentioned. “I’m way different now because I had my fun after going through a dark period and got off track at 20. If I didn’t live through that back then, imagine how I’d be now with 20 times the money I was making back then. Things could have gone way worse for me. I’m more mature now. I’ve grown up.”
SINCE BENAVIDEZ MADE his skilled debut in August 2013, three months after that camp in Big Bear Lake, he has but to lose a combat. “The Mexican Monster” has exceeded Sanchez’s lofty expectations as an undefeated two-division world champion who has torn by 31 straight opponents with a fan-friendly style predicated on relentless ahead stress, video game-like mixture punching and an innate capacity to shatter the desire of his opponent.
Benavidez has turn into a fighter’s favourite fighter, the type of boxer different fighters admire and followers cannot ignore.
“I love watching him fight,” former pound-for-pound king Roy Jones Jr., a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, informed ESPN.
Jones is aware of what it means to create highlights. His profession was one lengthy viral second pre-social media. Clips from Jones’ fights nonetheless make the rounds greater than 20 years since he was in his prime.
“He doesn’t duck or dodge nobody,” Jones mentioned. “A lot of fighters today hit you with a punch here and there and play it safe to win on points. Not Benavidez. He wants to hit you with five punches in a row, 10 if you let him. He’s fast with high volume and he’s punching all the time. People want to see fighters fight, and he comes forward and throws all kinds of combinations. Those combinations are both difficult and unique, and I love seeing it.
“He’s electrical on a regular basis, and that is what is lacking in boxing.”
YouTuber-turned-prize fighter Jake Paul told ESPN in the build to his fight with former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua that Benavidez was the only fighter he wouldn’t step into the ring with because “some individuals are simply constructed totally different.” And that was rich considering that he was about to step into the ring with — and subsequently have his jaw broken by — a much, much larger man with an elite boxing pedigree.
“Benavidez is all the time my No. 1 [fighter to watch],” Paul told ESPN. “I feel he is simply electrical, bro. That man is totally different. His energy, his pace, his cardio, his nonstop punching. Whenever I watch a Benavidez combat, I do know I’m going to see one thing spectacular.”
Benavidez’s career has been built on action, and that approach has earned him respect across the sport as one of the most entertaining fighters to watch.
“David Benavidez can combat his ass off,” Terence Crawford said.
“At first, I did not know he was one in every of them guys till I went to his combat and noticed him shut up. I’m positively excited to be on a card with him,” Gervonta Davis said of sharing a fight card with him last year.
Asked who was the best he ever fought, former world champion Anthony Direll said, “Benavidez, for certain.”
“I feel he beats all people,” mentioned Mike Tyson.
Benavidez is already recognized as one of the best in the world, while also being must-see TV, a rare combination necessary to break through into the mainstream.
Benavidez routinely uses the word “respect.” For his entire life, he has fought to prove that he’s the better man. At no point in a fight did Benavidez want anyone to think that his opponents were getting the better of him.
From the kid on the playgrounds of Arizona to the teenager sparring in sweaty boxing gyms to the adult in world title fights where three judges can determine the outcome, Benavidez has always wanted to leave no doubt who is better.
That means challenging himself against the best opponents possible, even when those plans don’t pan out, such as fighting Canelo.
His incessant pursuit of a fight with Canelo, who for many years was the best fighter in the sport and the face of boxing, turned out to be fruitless. But Benavidez acknowledges that freeing himself of that dream showdown put him in a position to move on and challenge Ramirez for the unified cruiserweight championship with the potential to take over as the main event on the traditional Mexican boxing dates, Cinco De Mayo in May and Mexican Independence Day weekend in September.
Should he beat Ramirez, he plans to go back down to light heavyweight to fight either unified champion Dmitry Bivol or former champ Artur Beterbiev.
“Everything is lastly falling into place,” he said. “I’m getting these large dates with large fights and I’m lastly getting the respect I deserve. And all of that was as a result of I needed to be affected person. Instead of getting annoyed, I knew my time would come. The face of the game is altering arms, and I’m right here to benefit from these alternatives.”