Devin Haney has offered a surprising take on Gilberto Ramirez vs David Benavidez, which many envision being a highly competitive cruiserweight battle.
The pair will square off for Ramirez’s WBO and WBA world titles on May 2, headlining a Premier Boxing Champions card at the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas.
Perhaps most interestingly, this represents Benavidez’s first outing at 200lbs, with the WBC light-heavyweight titlist looking to become a three-division world champion.
The 29-year-old comes off a destructive seventh-round finish over Anthony Yarde in November, which followed his consecutive points victories over David Morrell and Oleksandr Gvozdyk.
In search of criticism, it could be said that Benavidez is yet to face one of the top dogs – as in, Dmitry Bivol or Artur Beterbiev – but has nonetheless shown promising signs while campaigning at 175lbs.
Ramirez, too, is a former world super-middleweight champion but has now firmly established himself as a top-tier cruiserweight, coming off a string of solid unanimous decision victories over Yuniel Dorticos, Chris Billam-Smith and Arsen Goulamirian.
But despite the Mexican’s credentials at 200lbs, WBO world welterweight champion Haney seems to think that ‘Zurdo’ will be an easy night’s work for Benavidez, making a strong prediction on Inside the Ring while also managing a playful jab at the Mexican’s co-trainer, Malik Scott.
“I think that’s a fairly easy fight for Benavidez. I don’t think ‘Zurdo’ will give him any trouble… Especially because Malik Scott is his trainer, right? Easy.”
Many believe Benavidez’s hand speed and combination punching will see him emerge victorious, though it must be said that Ramirez represents a crafty operator who could negate aspects of his opponent’s style.
