David Benavidez embarking on ambitious attempt to conquer a third weight class: 'I'm not looking for safe'

In fact, it was the Mexican legend Alvarez's constant avoidance of Benavidez that forced him to move up to light heavyweight rather than wait and around and put his career on pause. And, after he quickly claimed a world title at 175 pounds, it was the unwillingness of divisional kings Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev to agree to must-see fights against him that saw Benavidez decide to test himself in a third division while continuing to carve out his own legacy.

"I think what I'm doing is I'm just trying to say I want to be the best, no matter what category or weight class I'm in," Benavidez said. "Now, I'm going up to cruiserweight, I just want to fight the biggest and best champions out there. I could've stayed around 175 and taken a safe title defense but I'm looking to challenge myself. I'm not looking for safe. The way I get the best out of myself is challenging myself."

If there was a silver lining in Alvarez's outright ducking of Benavidez, it was the fact that it led Benavidez to seek challenges against a series of difficult and avoided fighters, including then-unbeaten southpaws Demetrius Andrade and David Morrell. Those victories pair well with the other high-end names he has defeated -- including former champions Anthony Dirrell, Caleb Plant, Oleksandr Gvozdyk and Anthony Yarde -- to help Benavidez create an increasingly impressive resume.

Still, Benavidez maintains there are no hard feelings against Alvarez and that his move to become boxing's next face of Cinco de Mayo weekend has nothing to do with trying to one-up the former P4P king.

"I don't look at it like I'm competing with anyone or trying to take something from someone," Benavidez said. "My time was always going to come. I wanted the [Alvarez] fight because I want to fight the greats, not because I want to be him. I want to be David Benavidez. I have no hate. He had a great career. It's a shame that fight never got made. But this is my time now."

Although Ramirez's time as a former WBO super middleweight titleholder briefly overlapped with Benavidez's first reign as WBC champion at 168 pounds, the two fighters never crossed paths inside the ring in an official capacity. They did, however, spar together quite regularly from the time a 19-year-old Benavidez first helped Ramirez in camp ahead of his first title win -- a unanimous decision over Arthur Abraham in 2016 -- all the way through 2021 in what Ramirez estimates to be a total of 200 rounds.

"It was different [than a real fight] because of the head gear and different glove size," Ramirez told CBS Sports. "We both have evolved and became better fighters. Those were just training rounds."

The only thing the two fighters seem to dispute when looking back at their time training against one another was the level of intensity.

"I remember everything from every sparring session I've had," Benavidez said. "The reason why I remember is because there were not sparring sessions, these were fights. He was giving it all and I was giving it all. We had such a great sparring session and that's why I knew we would fight one day. I definitely know his strengths and weaknesses."

A native of Mazatlan, Mexico, who now lives and trains in Los Angeles, the 34-year-old Ramirez has proven to be a top fighter across three weight divisions over a 17-year pro career. His only defeat came via decision to Bivol at light heavyweight in 2022 and Ramirez has arguably done his best work since moving up to cruiserweight where the southpaw is 4-0, including quality wins over former world champions Joe Smith Jr., Chris Billam-Smith and Yuniel Dorticos.

Even though Ramirez and Benavidez are roughly the same height and reach, Ramirez expects the size difference between them to be the major difference.

Unlike Benavidez's move up from super middleweight to light heavyweight, which amounted to a difference of seven pounds, the move from 175 pounds up to cruiserweight is one of the most significant in all of boxing at 25 pounds. Still, Benavidez said he isn't worried about the difference, not just because he walks around at the cruiserweight limit of 200 pounds.

"By being a dog, by being who I am," Benavidez said about how he will overcome the size difference. "At the end of the day, this is what I love to do. And I don't really believe there will be much of a size difference. He will probably outweigh me by 10 pounds but a bigger fighter is also a slower fighter who I can attack more. He will have a bigger body that I can touch all night long. At end of day, this is boxing. I'm ready to go to war all day. I'm not really worried about him. He needs to worry about what I'm going to do."

Despite rumblings in recent years that an eventual move up to heavyweight could be in the cards sooner than later, Benavidez maintains that win or lose on Saturday, he plans to defend his light heavyweight title and continue pursuing superfights against Bivol and Beterbiev. In fact, with a win over Ramirez, Benavidez is aiming to become the first boxer to defend 175 and 200-pound titles, simultaneously.

Even though the plan sounds incredibly difficult on paper due to the dangers that come with adding and subtracting weight so regularly between fights, Benavidez reminded that his situation can't be compared to that of Roy Jones Jr., who after putting on an extensive amount of muscle to move up and claim a heavyweight title in 2003, cut back down to light heavyweight and was a shell of his former self.

"I'm not looking at heavyweight at all," Benavidez said. "That would be a 50-pound jump. Maybe in the future but as of right now, I think I can be a champion who can control the light heavyweight and cruiserweight division. I think I can do it and I don't think it has ever been done. I only fight twice a year so I basically have six months to lose the weight.

"I already told myself I'm going to do it so those are the goals I have planned."

Given their history, Benavidez said he respects Ramirez and he doesn't expect there to be any animosity between them, which has appeared to fuel Benavidez in previous fights, including his 2023 win over Plant. Benavidez said he is planning to knock out Ramirez regardless and believes the lack of a weight cut at cruiserweight will leave him with more stamina than normal in pursuit of that.

Ultimately, Benavidez is looking to honor his heritage on such an important date for his fans while representing the Mexican coastal state of Guerrero, where his father and trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr., is from.

"That's why I fight the way I fight because I'm Mexican," Benavidez said. "At the end of the day, I fight like the Guerreros. I fight with tremendous heart and I'm not going to stop until I get what I'm looking for. That's how all Mexicans fight. I leave it all in the ring and I don't run from anybody. I'm a Mexican warrior. I'm going to go in there and fight no matter what."