The Ariel Helwani Show - Inside Boxing | David Benavidez destroys Zurdo Ramirez; Dmitry Bivol or Jai Opetaia next?

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

Dan Canobbio and Chris Algieri open the show reacting to David Benavidez’s unreal knockout of Gilberto "Zurdo" Ramirez to capture the unified cruiserweight championship (03:58). With the win, Benavidez stamped himself as one of the bonafide stars of the sport and could carry the 'Face of Boxing' moniker. Could Dmitry Bivol, Jai Opetaia, or even a run at heavyweight be next (22:00)? The undercard delivered as well with four scintillating fights, from Jaime Munguia’s win over Armando Resendiz, to an all out brawl between Ismael Flores and Isaac Lucero. Oscar Duarte had an up-and-down performance vs. Angel Fierro as well (46:31).

Welcome back, everyone. It's another episode of Inside Boxing, presented by ppv.com. It's Dan Kenobio, it's the champ, Chris Algeri. We're in unison or an association, I should say, with Uncrowned and Yahoo Sports. We're coming to you off of a massive, massive boxing weekend. David Benavides obliterates Zerda Ramirez, stops him in the sixth round, drops them in the fourth round.

A new superstar has emerged in boxing. I'm very excited to talk about it with you, Mr. Chris Algeri. For those of you that want to catch up on Inouye and Nakatani, we have a whole episode dedicated to that that we put out on Saturday directly after the fight, so go to the Inside Boxing channel and go watch that because that was a great fight as well. So he had you covered there. So if you're wondering, hey, it's Sunday, are they going to recap the entire weekend? Well, we really got you covered.

Saturday we did it in a way. We gave it the proper respect that it deserves. and today we give you Benavitas and what was an outstanding card top to bottom at PBCPPV.com offering for you. How are you, Chris? I'm great. I'm tired. This is a lot of boxing this weekend. I had ProBox TV on Friday night. I got up early to watch Inouye.

You and I podcasted immediately after for the reaction, which a lot of people were DMing me. Hey, that fight was amazing. You got to do like a show just on that. I'm like, don't worry, man. it's coming down a pike in a couple hours, literally maybe minutes, this will be out. So I'm glad that we were to offer people the immediate reaction for Inouay, which the people have spoken, they've been tuning in. But now we got to talk about what happened on Saturday night because what an amazing card. The card was awesome. I kept saying on the chat, and for you guys

who weren't in the PPP live chat, you really got to get on that because we have so much fun in that chat. Five and a half hours, Dan. Five and a half hours, you and I were in that chat talking. I was in the arena. It was crazy. It was a long-ass card. I was on my couch with my dogs and they missed me. They were on my face basically as I'm typing. They watched the fight with me. But no, it was it was a fantastic card. I kept saying in the chat. I'm like, the matchmakers, the promotion did such a fantastic job putting together good fights, guys who were really gone, getting after it. From the opening. fight until the main

yeah no just great night of fights and David Benefitiz living up to the moniker the monster the mugger the mugger he mugged him he did more than mug he's he mugged him he's got firepower a cruiserweight he's not a mugger anymore okay we'll get to that he's full on artillery

full on artillery I got a lot of questions I want to get your thoughts on that but yeah promoters did a good job you know why because they put the whole Mexicans full Mexican card just do that every time just both sides Mexican man we love Mexicans man We love Mexican fighters. We love Mexican culture. We have Mexican fighting spirit.

Yes. We should just do full-on Mexico versus Japan cards from now on. Yes, this weekend. Yes, thank you. Both cultures just fight. It's awesome. That's why this weekend was amazing. We had the biggest fight in Japanese history, in a way, in Nakatani,

and then we had the Mexicans going at it in Vegas. And people were asking, what's the vibe like in Vegas? What's the buzz like? I'm like, this media room is packed. It's the most packed I've seen. for a non-Canello fight week. That's a powerful statement there, Dan. That's a powerful statement.

And a lot of people backed me up on that because it's because of Mexican fight fans, Mexican media, single DiMaio, it was just a great weekend and being in Las Vegas. I'm very fortunate to have spent the week with pbv.com, bringing you some of the content and being in the arena for what was David Benavita's coming out party. I'm going to say it right now. That was one of the best performances I've ever seen in person. I could argue that it was better than Crawford over Spence because it was a little more violent and just more like, oh shit. But it's up there, man.

For Benavides to deliver that type of performance on that weekend, when his star power was in question, where his heritage was in question, is this guy Mexican enough? Can he fill out a stadium? Can he carry Cinco de Mayo weekend? He does it with Canello in attendance, the guy that has been the guy for the last 10 years who he's been calling out, the viralness of the knockout alone is going to live on for a very, very long time. I already went on TikTok and seen a ton of edits. It was just the perfect performance from a guy that's now coming into his own and David Benavitas over a champion in Zerto Ramirez, who's never been beat up like that.

So David Benavita has passed with flying colors and has now established himself, I think, as a number one entertainment attraction in all of boxes. I've been saying this for the last 18 months. David Benavides has everything necessary. The formula is there to be the face of boxing. And he stamped his position with that fight. And you mentioned the questions. There was a question about Benavides' power as well.

Well, I mean, you said it. Listen, Zerto, if he's nothing else, and granted, he's a very good fighter. And I have a guy who I back him very well, and I rate him very highly, is super durable. Super durable. Even moving up to cruise away from 168, he showed durability at 199. He showed durability. Chris Billiam Smith can punch.

He took a lot of damage from that guy. Kept going. Dordico's, big puncher. Walked through all of that. David Benibides stops him in six. Drops him, breaks his orbital, bust his face up by the third round. His face is a mess.

Ridiculous. I mean, yeah. Bro. He did like a, the first round, I was like, okay, this is playing out like I thought I was going to play out so far. And that's the hardest part of calling fights. I'll let you finish. I'm going to push back.

Well, at least for me, like when I'm calling a fight, I feel like the hardest for me as an analyst is the first round. Because it's so hard to just figure out right away. You're going off of what you think is going to happen, what they've looked like in their past couple of fights. And I saw a slow plotting Jerto, and I saw David that was doing the same, pawing with his jab and being defensively responsible and a little bit quicker. The final 10 seconds, the... 10 second clap. He shoe shines. And I let out an audible gasp in the arena.

I think a lot of people did. The kid next to me, Jason, for PBV. I was like, holy shit. That was insane. And he landed some, too. And I was like, okay, is he just showing off the speed? Is this a sugar-ray-lennar type of thing? Last 10 seconds, he's going to try to steal some rounds.

Is this a game plan of his? And then the second round, he flashed it in the middle of the round. And then by the middle of the second into the third round, we're like, the hand speed that we talked about is somehow even improved from Benavitas. as he's gone up to 200 pounds. I'm like, this is going to, this is insane. 25 pounds. This has gone up to 200 pounds from 175. Like this is insane to see that in person.

So yeah, like the hand speed in person, like seeing it in the arena was, it was captivating, to say the least. The difference, though, the handspeed was always there and the shoe shine was always there. He's done that to everybody throughout his career. Porky. Oh, yeah. Porky. Perker Medina when we first saw that

combination that's varro, but at times when he's done that, he's been a little sloppy and the punches weren't heavy. These punches were heavy. They were fast and hard.

Like that last combination that actually finished Zerto, there was left hooks that hit, you saw sprays of sweat. Boom, like boom, boom, multiple in the same combination. Those are not slapping punches.

Those were heavy, explosive shots. Yeah. And so the first round, this is where my technical pushback is going to come from. It wasn't like I expected. I expected Zerto to do Zerto things. And Zerto technically is actually very good. And I did a long breakdown for PBV.com, which is on my Instagram.

He's got good level changes. He escapes out the weak side, which is for South Paul, is going out to the right. He does that very well. He stays long. He didn't do any of that. He was falling over. his skis immediately. He was covering up with a passive guard immediately, waiting to get hit. And as the fight were on, and I said this in the chat, I saw a man who was broken before he

even stepped in the ring. And Benavides alluded to that. He's like, we sparred. We spent 200 rounds together. I've heard him. He knows it. He fought very much like he knew what was going to happen that night. He knew. Not only that, Chris. I don't want to cut you up. You want to keep going. I'm just saying,

Zerto, he knew he was getting his ass whip that night, and he sure did. Yes, because our friend Sean Sattel said this, and I 100% agree with him too. I went right up to when he said it.

He was doing an interview, and I felt the same way. It's almost like Zerto accepted his fate this week. Yep. He is the unified champion at Cruiserweight. He was the B-side in this fight.

It was the David Vezza show. There was a moment at the way in, Not a big moment, but a moment nonetheless. There was a big mariachi band came up on the stage. It was like a high school mariachi thing. And Zerto had already stripped down the step onto the scale. And he didn't know that the mariachi band was coming out. So he had to take a step back as Benavitas made his way onto the stage.

And there's Zerdo just sitting in his underwear like this. And there's a entire mariachi band in front of him. And he's just sitting there waiting for his time to go up there as the champion. on top of that he's talking about retirement he said it to me in our media session i heard it him say to marcos vegas from uh fight hub saying like yeah i i'm done he said what he said to me goes i got like one maybe one or two more left than me and then i'm done i want to be an actor uh i want to fight usik i want to fight joshua like to me you can attest this even better than me like when a fighter starts talking about retirement they're they're retired yes and before we get

to his game plan, which I thought was horrendous, and his performance was really bad. I just felt like he almost accepted his fate before the weekend started. And with the sparring, too, to your point, like, with the sparring, he's like, I think we know how that sparring went. I think Benavide has got the best of him in those 200 rounds. I don't think we have any reason to ever doubt anything that David Benavita says. When he tells you he whipped your ass, he whipped your ass. Because he's just not that kind of guy.

I've interviewed him. You've interviewed him. I've been interviewing for years through ProVox TV. He's blunt. Him and his father have come on and if nothing else, those gentlemen, the Benevita's family, I've talked to all of them,

are just super genuine people. They just tell it how it is, man. Blunt is a good word, but like they're just truthful. And they speak the way you're supposed to speak and I've been saying that about David. That's one of the reasons. The first time I interviewed him, I was like, this guy's going to be the face of boxing, or at least he should be.

You've been saying that for a while. Because this is what boxing needs. You need a guy who talks like he talks, walks like he walks, fights like he fights, and wants all the smoke. He avoids no one. He calls out the best fighters no matter where they are. He will move up. We've seen that.

He will bounce around. Oh, you don't want to fight me? Cool. I'm going to go for something bigger, better, make more money. I love everything about the way David Benavides moves. And then when he goes out there and does what he does, like it's almost secondary. like, yeah, that's just the way he fights. He's going to whip your ass.

He's going to beat the shit out of you. And I used to say, oh, he's not a big puncher, but he's going to beat you up. He's going to beat you up. He's going to break your will. Apparently, a cruise way he can punch, too. So there's that. But, yeah, I, Zerto just,

whatever he brought that night wasn't much, but the aura of David Benavides had him beat long before they ever stepped in the ring. Well, let's get to Zerto now. Like, I tweeted out that I thought he had one of the worst game plans. I thought he didn't execute. I thought he didn't move his head.

I mean, we kind of knew this heading in, but I didn't think he would kind of look that poor. But he's very slow to begin with. We know that. But I didn't think he was in a stand in front of Benavitas. He didn't move his head at all. He was a stationary target. He was cannon fodder for Benavita's in there.

And I just thought it was a horrible gameplay. I didn't expect him to be on the balls of his feet, bouncing all over the place. But like maybe you can kind of offer your technical thoughts here. Was there any part of you with Zerdo where you're like, okay, that's not the way

you should have fought this fight? I saw it immediately, the first 30 seconds. I was like, what are we doing? If you're not a mover, can you teach like an old dog new tricks?

Can you tell Zerdo to move more? It's not that he's not a mover because he's not, yes, he has slow feet and it's not that he's, he's not a superstationary guy. He cuts angles. He actually does cut angles.

For the first six rounds versus Bivel or maybe five rounds, it was actually a competitive fight. Like, he was in the fight. He ran out of steam and then started putting himself on the ropes and was just getting outworked and outworked and outskilled in that fight,

which is Bivel. I understand that. But this fight, he didn't muster up anything that he would need to do against the guy like Benavides. It seemed like he just like, taking all the sparring away.

He fought that fight like, I'm the bigger man. You're coming to my weight class. This is my championship. I can stand in front of you. You can't hurt me. You're not a puncher. I'm going to fight you.

But I think he also knew that he can hurt him because they sparred. And he fought a very slow-paced, methodical, heavyweight style fight to be in front of you. Kind of the way he fought Billiam Smith. But there was just no, there was no shimmy. There was no thought process to it. Lateral movement. There was no angling. Because, listen, he cuts angles, boom, boom.

And then he goes to the body really, really well. We've seen him at his best. Do all that? Did none of that. Right away, I saw him heavy over his front foot with his hands. I was like, oh, dude, you're a sitting duck with a guy who's got faster feet, faster hands, faster combinations, a good jab. And he offered up very, very little, almost immediately. I know there's a lot of talk about if Benavitas will go back down to light heavyweight.

And what's the right weight for this guy? I've been saying it since he arrived at 168. Oh, he's too big for 168. and he goes to 175, he has a little bit of struggles early on, eventually settles in. Now he's at cruiserweight. I thought he looked pretty damn comfortable cruiserweight. Like, I think this is his weight.

I agree. I don't think he should go back to 75. As much as I want to see him in Bivol, as much as I want that fight, and it seems like that's the fight that's going to happen next. He may be rethinking that because of how good he felt. He said it beforehand. And a lot of guys, we say everything before fights.

We're like, oh, this is the best for drinking in my life, and then you find it after if they lose. He was like, oh, I had bad elbow, my knee was hurt. But, like, no, he said going to fight. He was like, yo, he's like, this is the best I ever felt. Like, you're going to see the best version of me. And we did, because the power was there, the conditioning was there, the combination of punching was there, the gas tank was there, the speed was there. The speed was there.

Because there was a worry. People were like, ah, you know, put on the extra weight. Is the speed going to be there? Guess what? Bro. Speed was there in spades. So. Fastest he's ever looked.

Yeah. So I don't, I don't, I agree with you, Dan. I think, I think cruiser is actually where he should be. and I'm not going to mince words here. I think he has a real stake at heavyweight at some point. We'll get to that in a second, too, because I'm looking at the puncher-up. Kim Lampley was right. Kim Lampley was right. He said it.

I know. He said, I'm going to see David Vito's as a heavyweight champion someday. Crazy old man. It's very possible. No, Lampley did say it for a while, and I did ask Benavita straight up, and he didn't rule it out. He just said, not yet. But, I mean, you want to really chase greatness. But that was before the fight, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Afterwards, still, he said the same kind of the same spiel. Like, guys, guys, guys, come on, enough with these heavyweight stuff. Like, I just got the cruiser weight. But that's what we're going to have with Benavitas. He's that type of a fighter now. What do you spend the light heavyweight?

Three fights? The guy is, yeah, the guy is moving fast. But going back to him as a cruiser rate, I thought he was a lot more measured in there. He threw 44 in the first round, 56, 58, 63, 54, 50. It felt more natural. His output. obviously the power is there. The speed, I've never seen a cruiser way throw punches like that with the speed.

I'm telling you, man, you saw it on your screen in person. It was unreal. It's the type of performance where people are going to go want to watch this guy fight live now. He's almost, he's must watch TV. He's elevated. He always was, but now even more. Because to do it on this stage and do it in, like what I said early, to open the show, like how he did it and the timing of it was insane.

But another question. I wanted to ask you, but I didn't, I waited until the show. Roy Jones famously went from light heavyweight to heavyweight. What do you weigh for the Ruiz fight? 210. 208, something like that. Yeah, something. Yeah. 2.10, he was lower.

Yeah, 205 to 2010. And he was up there in age. He's not, he wasn't 29 like Benavitas was. I haven't heard much of this discussion. Benevita is going from 175 to 200 for this fight on 196, so 200 on fight night, for sure. back down to 175. I mean, know what happened to Roy. He killed him.

I wish we all wish he never did that, and he got knocked out. Do you see any of that happening to Benavides where if he goes from 200, back down to 175, it's going to be a dangerous move? There's always the potential, yes. No, never mind.

Roy was 193 when he fledger-Rouries. I've just looked it up. So he went up 20 pounds. 193. So Benavitas went up even higher. He was 198, I think. Yeah. Right. So still under the limit. Fight night. Benevias was definitely over 200.

Yeah. So is it possible? Yes. Yes, there is that. I'm not sensing it. Again, because you mentioned the age thing. The age thing really matters. And so this is why. If you look at Roy at 196 when he fought John Ruiz, he put on a tremendous amount of lean tissue. He actually transformed his body into an entirely different athlete. And he fought, you know, typical Roy Jones stuff, but not as busy. You know, he felt more heavyweight measured because he had John Ruiz in front of him. Kind of like Zerto, a slower guy who doesn't have feet. But Roy was immaculate that night. He looked amazing. But he was a different build.

He built himself into, he created armor to deal with the heavyweights, the heavyweight division. I didn't see that with David Bedavides. And I'm not, he actually looked okay. You know, a lot of people are saying, I've had chats and they're like, ah, it's just going to be fatter than ever. I'm like, no, he didn't look bad. He didn't look any worse than he normally does, I would say. Maybe a little less lean in the face, whatnot.

But, you know, he's not a body beautiful guy. And there's nothing wrong with that. He's, he's a great athlete. And he's in shape, obviously. Not everyone's shape looks the same. But in terms of him going back down to 75, I have a lot less. Prepedition thinking about that than I did with Roy. Because Roy put on so much lean tissue.

Like it was muscle. He put on, he was, I mean, his everything grew. David didn't look that different. He really didn't. Didn't look that different. He's not like that. That's not his physique. Like, you know, he's not a muscle guy.

I remember he was in the next room over when we were doing our media session. You know, he was doing the promo shoot for a Golden Boy of Zonto, you know, took his shirt off. And there was like people saying, like, it doesn't even look like a boxer. Like, he's not like cut. He's not. He never was. He was a, is a fat kid at heart. He was like 300 pounds when he was a teenager.

It's like the story of like a lot of boxers out there. You've gone to boxing to get in shape. Got out of the boxing to stop getting bullied. And now he's the bully. He's a fucking mugger. Yeah, that was some pretty awesome shit, man. Inside of that arena, everyone was buzzing. Like, I think everyone had a collective, like, what did we just watch?

Because there isn't anyone in that arena outside of maybe Benavitas and his immediate inner circle that thought he was going to do that. Win that, the monster delete, stop him, hurt him, beat his face up in six rounds. Like it was nothing. Like a hot butter through knife. No. No. Dan.

No. A hot knife through butter. Fucking Vegas, bro. It wasn't Vegas. That was just you. That's just... Vegas plus my brain is not a good thing. We're going to call those Danisms.

Like a hot butter through... knife, I said, bro. I said a hot... We know who breds your butter. We know, bro. You put me in Vegas for four or five days with my brain, not good. Big butter owns Dan. Big butter owns Dan.

Oh, God. Had a great dinner. Beauty and Essex. Shout out, Chrysantis. Yeah, Chris Santos is the man. That was a great dinner Friday night. Huge. Set me up.

Corner booth. It was amazing. Great guy. Amazing. Yeah, my point is, is like, the arena was buzzing. because it was already like at a fever pitch when the main event started even though it was super late because every fight was good literally so everyone was like every fight yeah like even if the fights like there was no boring fights they were all exciting rounds i will get to the undercard yeah but i want to talk about what's next for benavides because he has a slew of options at multiple weight classes he has told me beforehand benavidas versus bill ball is 90% happening this has come right from the mouth of beneditas that's the right there at light heavy weight. It could happen.

It could be a PBC. Same thing. PBC match room, September type of showdown. Then there's Jaya at Cruiserweight, who is, I think, the second best cruiserweight in the world,

because I think David Vez is the best cruiserweight in the world now. It's wild. So, like, I want to ask you, what do you want to see more? Or where do you think we as boxing fans should focus our attention for the next David Benavitas event?

Should it be Bavol at 175 or should it be Opataya at Cruzeway? No question, Bivel. He needs to go down to 75. He needs to conquer the man who conquered the man who wouldn't fight him. And that's Canelo-Ovarez. There's no other way about it. He has to go down to 175 and fight Dmitri Bivol because Canello wouldn't fight Benavides at 68. he obviously went up to fight 75 against Bibbol.

I actually went up to 75 to beat Kovalev, and he did amazingly. And then he went back up again to fight Bivol, which was a mistake, obviously, takes the loss. So you don't want to fight me? Cool. I'm going to go beat the guy who beat you. How about that? There's no better smack in the face for David Benevita's than to go back down to 75, fight Bivol. Not saying he beats Bivol, but hypothetically, he goes down there and he beats Bivol.

There's, he just, at that point, what's, what, he has everything over Canello at that point. You didn't want to fight me. Cool. You went up, you lost. I went up, I beat that guy. I went down. Excuse me. Went up, went down and beat that guy.

Went around. All around. Yeah, I agree. I think the Opitai fight has a lot of roadblocks. And a lot of problems being made. But there's just time on that. You can, they can fight. There is time on that.

There is time. They're the same age. Both young. Around the same age. There's time. The Bivol fight is commercially, it's a home run. People now know who Bivol is. Stylistically, it's a home run.

We got a technical fighter in Bivall, who's a defensive wizard, who is up there in age, 34, 35 years old, coming off a back surgery and a lot of time off. Don't like that. I love that. I don't love that. No, don't love that at all. I want it to be at their best. I want Bivol to be at his best. Benavides is clearly peaking right now. Yeah, I think Bivol is to fight, and I think that's obviously what Benavides wants, and I love this about Benavizza told right to him. I love that you have a plan, and I love that you're vocalizing it to fans, and you're letting everyone know what your plan is and what your game plan is. I want Bivov, and I'm going to go back to Khrznoi, and I want Obitaya, or I want Better Bav. like he's letting us know like what he wants to do so i think bivall is uh is going to be next i think

that's going to be in september i think it could be in las vegas i think it could be another big spectacle weekend where there's promoters working together uh on de zone or pbvvd or any of that so yeah i agree bivol should be next and this is another thing that benavitas told me it's on our uh social media right now is when i beat zerto i think i should be top five pound for pound then when i'm I beat Bivol, I want to be number one. Because of the run that I just went on. 68 to 75 to beating Zerto, to going back down to beating Bivol,

I deserve to be in the top three, or at least number one, is what he told me. I would have to agree with that. It's going to depend who's there when he gets there because you still got Ousick and in a way fought this weekend as well, as well, and looked the way he did and beat a top-notch young fighter. Top three is very much. there. But it depends what Bam does in his next fight against Martinez, moving up and wait to

the 18. But yes, he's, listen, we spoke about this all fair. And I said, listen, he goes on this run where he, if he beats Zerto, this is before the fight, obviously, he beats Zerto and then he goes back down to 75 and he beats Bivel. Again, I'm not saying he beats Bivel. That's a whole another discussion. Hypothetically, he goes and he goes on that run, just like he's talking about. Yes, you're talking top three there. You're battling for the third spot with Bam. Yeah, absolutely. But also, by the time we get there,

Usik might be gone. Well, Usuk might be fighting, he's fighting Rearhoven, and then, according to Ring magazine, Turkey's interested in the Kabeel fight, which would help. I like that. I like that a lot, too. Over to Opataya,

who I think is obviously one of the best cruiserates in the world, if not the best. Benavides is now at the top of that list as well. I do. I actually do think he's still the best. I got it. I got to say, yeah. I think he's, I think he's the guy to be. Yeah, but like, I didn't come away from that Glenn performance, super impressed. He's just been there for a long time. He deserves the respect. Yeah, I tend to have that philosophy when I discussed this. Recency bias is the thing. I just watched David Benavillas blow out Zerta Ramirez, so I'm hyped up for Benavides. Yes. And Opataya's been there for a while, albeit against some. pretty bad competition. I mean, Ring Magazine could strip this guy because he hasn't fought a top five opponent in over two years.

That's their own rules. And I don't know what's on the schedule for him. But he is damn good. There's no doubt about it. If Benavita's stays at Cruze rate, the obvious fight is Opataya. But with Opataya comes roadblocks now. The man signed to Zufa. He got his belt taken away.

He signed with an organization that wants to get rid of the sanctioning bodies. He made this fight harder to happen. He didn't do it on purpose, even though I think he probably should have read the fine print in that contract. But now a really great fight a cruiserie between Benavitas and Opataya has roadblocks because Opatia signed with Zufa. That has yet to be seen whether or not that whole Zufa anti-old school, no belts thing really stands. Okay, well, he doesn't have a belt. Yeah, but listen, you just make it, you make it. get a superfight on a ring card, you put the belts up still.

You think the governing bodies are not going to throw in their belts for that? Because they get paid. It doesn't matter. There's a sanction fee. One of the governing bodies already stripped him. So he's won down. He's got the Zufa belt. And I asked, Benevita's this once again. I said, what's the percentage of you fighting Opetia? He said, it's pretty bad because of Zufa. It goes, it complicated things.

I want to fight for WBO, WBA, I want to be undisputed because I grew up. That's what I was chasing. it's my Super Bowl. He goes, I'm going to be honest. I don't think it's going to happen because he signed with Zufa. Yeah, but you don't think, you know, so this, and this is going to be a major lion in the sand, and this could be a very pivotal movement, pivotal move. Moment. Moment. In time. If the Zufa belt is holding back Jaya from the biggest fight of his career, is he going to let that fight opportunity to leave? to keep that belt,

or is he going to say, fuck that belt, the Zufa belt, fuck that title, I'm going to fight the best guy in the division. That's going to make me the most money possible. And I'm going to be, have the opportunity to fight for something that I've always wanted to be,

which is a unified, undisputed champion. Opatai has, Elpatai is not, has not, minced words. He wants to be unified champion. But you got, you're going to have to go through a guy like Benavides if he decides to stay there. He's got two titles.

Well, who? Who's two titles? Benavitas. Benavitas, yes. And you're going to have to go fight that guy. Opitaya, to me, has won the ring belt. The IBF he was stripped of, and the Zupa belt means absolutely nothing. So, yeah, you just said that he wants to be undisputed, but it's not an unspeated fight. It's a vacant IBF title. There's a WBC. It's in the process. It's in the process. And listen, he... I get that, too. David, and he gets those two titles, what's stopping him from getting the other ones? I don't think anybody.

Another thing, too, is I don't think as much as I'm anti-ZUFA and I'm all about the belts and what they are, even though they have their own problems, too. If Opataya and Benavita step into the ring next, do you really, like, the fans know that those are the two best cruiser rates in the world. Yeah. Right? Mm-hmm. So, yeah, it's not going to have, like, the undisputed marketing.

It's not going to have all that on it. It's still one versus two. in the consensus of boxing fans. But it is, that's not the case. It is messy because of Opitaya signing with Zufa. And I have people telling me, Dan, he took the money. Like, he wasn't getting any money from anywhere else. He wasn't getting money from Match Room.

No one wanted to sign him. But look at what, look at him now. He took one fight with Glantin. I was on a Sunday night at the apex in front of no one. And in the process, lost his IBF belt, leveraging power, and potentially lost. a massive, massive payday and huge fight with David Benavides. So that's what he got for signing to Zufa.

That's why I think it was a mistake. I ultimately think him signing with Zufu was a massive mistake. He could have waited a little bit longer, sign a one-off or did something. Waited. And then look, see what Benavides was going to do. So I believe DeNavides is now a big moneymaker now. Yeah. I mean, you never know how the cookie's going to crumble in terms of like, who would have

thought that David Benavis was going to move up and smash Zerto and take two of those titles. And then these guys can call each other out. Chris, do you want your manager to think that? Do you want your manager to know that? A good manager? Does he look ahead and see everything, every possible outcome? Absolutely. But when you have been languishing,

which what it seems like Obitaya has been, and Matrim wasn't moving in the way that he wanted to be moved, listen, dude, I'm talking from his fighter's perspective. When you're sitting out and you're watching big fights being made around you, there's nothing that burns your ass more. And you're just so, you just get angry. You're getting angry at your promotion. You're getting angry at your managers.

You're getting sick of the sport. It happens to all of us. And I think that's what was going through. Also, you're looking at the pay days that are not coming your way that you should deserve and other guys are getting paid that. You never can know this is going to happen. But also, this hasn't played out yet. And in terms of this move, this could, if what you're saying is the end all for Opatai,

yeah, he made a horrible decision. But we're seeing the Zou Fatikio deals making a lot of concessions. and if they concede and allow him to go fight for those titles outside of it while still being signed, maybe it wasn't the worst thing because he's getting a lot of exposure. He's still going to get that fight. But this is only, we're telling the future right now. I don't have my magic ball right now to tell me what's going to happen. Counter to that is, will the, Zufa might say, yeah, you can go do it, but are the sanctioning body's going to play along?

Because the IBF didn't. They stripped them just because of his association with Zuf. It's going to come. And I've heard this week. But it wasn't the association with Zufa. It was the fact that they were fighting for the Zufa title. Right. Yeah.

So then it's going to come down to how much is Zufa going to stick to their guns and be like, you're our champion. You got to keep that belt. Oh, God. Because Obataya might go, you know what? Guys, take the belt for now. He can't do that. No way, bro.

This is boxing. You can negotiate. He's like one of the faces of that promotion, though. There's no way. He's the tip of the spear for them. That would be a big. There's no way. would be a big hit to them.

And remember I said this a few, a few, maybe a couple. He bins to Zufa belt would be amazing. I would praise the guy. I said this a few weeks ago. I said, what happens when Jai Opataya is not happy with what's happening in his career? And then he goes, I want out. That would be the opposite of the tip of the spear. He would be.

We're about to find out. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, he couldn't predict that Benavitas would go to Cruiserweight. And also, like. And be a worthy opponent. And he's going back down to 175. The whole point could be moot if he fights Bivol next.

I think it is. I think he's going to 75. Yeah, I agree. That's why he told me 90%. And then, like we said, he's a very blunt, honest guy. He told you that before the fight. Well, the number, the fight, I can't tell what fans want more, Opitaya or Bilval. It's pretty great problem to have if you're David Benavides.

Those are two great fights. The Bivol fight is easier to make. but the and the opatai one is harder to make because of all these obstacles now. Another thing I heard this weekend kind of goes in line with this is that Ryan Garcia versus Connor Ben is in like serious danger of ever getting off the ground. Really? Because of Zufa, Zufa Conner Ben's association with Zufa and Ryan Garcia being the WBC champion.

Once again, WBC does not want to work with Zufa and vice versa. so it's a similar situation to Anopataya with working with other and Zufu working with other sanctioning bodies so that's something to keep an eye on too because I know that I heard it twice

and I also heard that Ryan Garcia's going to fight Roli in July I have heard that and I have not disclosed this to anyone three weeks ago yeah I heard that I heard that's like almost a foregone conclusion

I heard that that's why Haney, Roles fell apart because the Ryan fight was going to be the fight. Yeah. July, August, Ryan receivers, Raleigh, which I don't hate. I don't hate that at all. I think it's a necessary fight. I think Rolies has been sitting out for too long. He deserves a shot. I think he was there last night.

I think he earned it because he's already beaten Ryan. I think he was in discussion for the Haney fight, which I did like. And I think he has a much better shot against Ryan than he did against Haney personally. Point being is that Zufa is causing problems. Rico Ali Walsh was tweeting last night. I loved it. Like, they're becoming a... They're getting in the way.

They're impeding on fights. A hindrance, yeah. They're impeding on fights, big fights. Which is the exact opposite of what they're supposed to be. Right? But they had to do this first to get to where they want to be. Like, it's just... Boxing can never just fully be open.

Like, now we have the zone with all the... All the promoters underneath one banner. We're seeing last night was a co-promotion. We're seeing a lot more co-promotions down the pipeline with top rank. It seems like

there's one network now in here. Come Zufa. Signing guys. Signing champions. Taking them out of this. Take him out of the sandbox. Come on.

It's never going to be smooth. It's never going to be all at once. It's always going to be a separate player, a separate entity out there. It just happens to be the Zufa one is very powerful

and it has some big time money behind it. And that's another thing too. But, Dan, Turkey can throw money at this situation. Zufa, the Opataya, and Benevita. Sure he can, I agree.

And Benavides even said that up on the stage. He said, let's talk. You didn't say 0% chance. He said, let's come to an agreement. There's always, AKA, let's throw some money at this. If Turkey wants that fight, he'll make it happen. It's just not going to have all the marketing of an undisputed fight. Still a unification.

It's still a way for Opataya to get the two belts that, Benavita says. Most importantly, it's an awesome fight. Awesome fight. There is a narrative. These guys are talking trash already. Two best guys are cruiserweight. But 100% David Benavides is in the driver seat. Finally, finally, a guy who's been sitting co-pilot for so long, trying to get the Canello fight that was just completely barred. It was dangled in front of his nose for so long. And just taking charge of his career. I tip my hat to Benavitas and his entire team, his father, his family. Samson Lukowitz. Samson is the man. He's one of the smartest men in boxing today.

That guy can spot talent. Write that down. He's one of the smartest men in boxing right now. Dude, he's the one who discovered Manny Peckia. Yes. Talent Scout like he wouldn't know other. But also, he understands this sport. And he works, it's not just about bringing the talent out there.

He is, he is a master chess player when it comes to boxing. Yeah. And in terms of where Benavides is go, and I don't want to take the credit out of Samson's hands because, again, I'm giving him glowing remarks. I love Samson, but it's David. David is making these moves. David is the driving

force of why he's getting these opportunities. He is not going to be denied by any means. He gets a roadblock, he walks around it, finds a bigger challenge. It's exactly the way you want fighters to do, to fight. And we don't, we lack so many

of these guys with character and integrity. David Benavides has the character and the integrity of a champion. This is what the sport of boxing needs. We need more David Benavides. We had these guys in the 80s. We don't have these guys anymore. These guys go the path to least resistance.

Not David Benavides. He goes for it. He looks for the biggest challenge possible. He will move weight classes. He would put himself in worse positions because he believes in himself. That's what a champion is all about. Amen. And he proved it on Saturday night.

It's pretty awesome to see. I don't want anyone can even talk shit about it now. Like, I have people still say he's ducking. Batalia. You got to be fans, like fans. You got to be fans. You got to be rabid fan or from Australia or... He's never ducked anyone in his life. He threw an elbow or Canello fans hate Canelo or Canelo fans hate Canelo. Canelo was booed, bro. They showed up on a screen last night. Bood! And I was like, wow. Because I don't really think of Benavides as having a huge fan base. And maybe I'm wrong because I think he does now. So it was obviously an anti-Conello Mexican crowd. It was a number of things, I think, the booing of Canello. It was clearly, driven by Benevita's fans. Then I think it was a little bit of like Canelo you just lost.

You're not fighting on Cinco de Mayo, even though you're hurt. Your next fight is in Saudi Arabia. You know, I don't know. It was a little bit of that, more towards the fact that it was Benavides' fans

and obviously they did, like each other. It's two different camps within the Mexican fan base world, even though David was not born in Mexico, born Phoenix. And we're not a, we're not an anti-Canelo

podcast by any means. But can we give him a little respect for coming back off a layoff and a surgery right into Mbili? Fuck yeah, dude. It's a great fight. It's a great fight. I am not, I'm not maybe a little surprised because I've been calling for this fight for a long time. I knew this fight was going to happen at some point. But to come off a layoff and a surgery to go right into a young, strong ox of a guy like Mbilly, yes, he has his faults.

Yes, I think he falls right into Canello's style. but what Canello are we getting? If Canello is at all degraded, an 80% Canelo probably doesn't beat InBilly. He's got to be top-notch for that fight. So I tip my hat to Canello for taking this fight. This is a tough fight. Absolutely.

I said I put out a little video because it got swallowed up by everything this weekend. If you're going to fight for Turkey, you're going to fight for $100 million to fight, 80 million dollars a fight, Turkey gives you a list and tells you this is what you have to fight. I like it. And Mabilly is on that list.

And he throws 75 punches around. It's one of the highest numbers in all boxing. It's definitely the highest of 168. So, yeah, you're right. He is tailor-made for Canella. I think he might walk into something, or it could be a nice Canella win. But he is going to push Canella, for sure.

He's a pressure fighter. And that's interesting to see against a guy that has, you know, legs that aren't as strong as they once were for Canella. I want to get your thoughts on Benavitas to heavyweight because that's been asked. he said that he would look at Usik. I asked him about Atalma, and he's like, come on, man.

He's like, he's 22 years old. I know who he is, but like, that's not on my mind right now. Do you think Benavitas could go up to heavyweight one day? I do. I don't think it's going to be anytime soon, though. I think he has a lot of work. He told me five years. Yeah, he's got a lot of work to do.

And he's young. He's 28 years old. And I think it's going to aid him and actually make his career longer because he's in his physical prime right now. And if he can make the weights to make these fights, now he should. Because there's so much, as much as the heavyweight is the glamour division, I don't see him moving into heavyweight and getting the biggest fights possible in positions where he can win them. But I think he can make massive amounts

of money at 75 and then Cruiser and then he's in a better position. The landscape will change. The U-Six will retire. The, you know, the Anthony Joshua's, the Tyson Fury is, the wilder. That guard will be gone. It'll be more of these young guys. And he, he's, you know, he's, He can make a name for himself with those guys because I don't see him being able to handle a Nusik. Because that's who you're going to fight right away, essentially. If you're going to look to make big money, he can make much more money at 75.

Well, yeah, I think he will do it. Yeah, I don't think it's in his foreseeable future because he has such good options now. But I think it's going to add to the lore of Benavitas. Like, oh, this guy could fight multiple weight classes. We've seen it with the smaller guys, right? Manny Paco, eight divisions. Nile, in a way, four divisions.

Like, we've seen that. You don't really see it too much from a big guy. You don't really see, like, he's a run of the only guys that go 68, 75 cruiser, even though the 75 title was handed to him. It's never really been done. So to see a guy to go from 68 to heavyweight. I mean, Roy did it, went from middleweight to heavyweight, so he's one of the greatest to ever lace him up.

I think that adds to the lore of Benavitas. I think it could be something that could motivate him, but not yet. Motivate him, like you said, mid-30s. Do you think there's any heavyweights out there right now in the top 15-ish that Benavitas can beat right now? Yeah. Can he beat Gaseyev?

Former cruiserweight. So that's an interesting one. The problem of Gassiab is he's a killer puncher, even in a heavyweight. He can really, really punch. He's got knockout power, even at heavy. He's ranked 10th right now, Gassiev. Could David Benevita's beat Richard Torres?

that's a tough fight Richard Torres is a vastly improved fighter he's got a big amateur background the guy fights like he's shot out of a cannon That'd be awesome fight That's an awesome fight That's a tough fight That could be the one down the line

The guy the reason I brought up a Talmud He's probably gonna fight a Jay Patia at heavyweight honestly I don't know if we ever see Jai and Benevarez that cruiser honestly I think they might see them in the heavyweights Yeah I think those two are going to be linked for a while Opitaya and Benavitas The reason I brought up a Talma to Benavitas is because it's an aged thing.

Yeah, no, you know, like I said, Ussic. That's such a bad, bad fight. I don't think

it's ever going to happen, but I, you know, when you're making these social videos, you've got to get names like that

because, and I did an age thing because O'S, it's not going to fight Usoc. Benavita is not fighting Usoc. Usik has one or two more fights left.

Like you said, like the Joshvers are gone, Wilders are gone, Fury's gone. It's the, who's the next guard? Like, Wardley, he could lose to Dubois,

like, Dubois, Benavitas, doesn't make any sense to me. Atama being still big, he's like 225. He'd have to do a run like Usik did. Usik didn't jump right into the top guys. Right. He fought the Chazora's of the world.

He fought, what's his name? Witherspoon. Yeah, Chaz Witherspoon. Yeah, so. He fought Chazora, yeah. But point is, it's like, by the time Benavitas is even thinking about going to heavyweight, you would think that Atama would have been, is going to be the established guy. I mean, long way to go.

This is a crazy hypothetical conversation. This is a thought experiment that's getting very far outside the radius. This is why it's the last part of this segment. That's it. The undercard was solid. Jaime Mungia. Geez, I mean, that's the best performance. I've seen him from his career.

He outclasses Amanda Resendez, who I don't want to sound like your friend, Pauly, but probably the worst champ out there. He didn't do shit, Resendez, in this fight. Mangia looks awesome. I expected a lot more from Resendez, but. Yep. Mungia is now a champ at 160. He's a two-division champ.

He had the Bruno Soros nightmare. He had a PED failure. He comes back. And now he's looking good at 168, Chris. I would like to see Jaime Mungia versus Hamza Sharaz. Whoa. That's... That's an action fight at 168.

Yeah. Yeah, that's a... That's a tough fight. That's a tough fight. It's going to happen. The pressure of Mungia and the outside skill set of Shiraz, the power of Shiraz, the aggression and physicality of Mugia, great fight. Absolutely great fight. Well, I don't understand how Mungia is not ranked in the top 10 by Ring Magazine.

Really? I swear you have a problem, Bring Magazine. You got Beck the bully at 10, Shiraz at 9, Jacob Bank. Caleb Plant needs to be out of this list because Plant lost to Resendez. Resendez 6. Pacheco. The guys barely fights.

Mungia is going to be five now at least. Five. Lester. Lester's a beast. Dude, Lester versus Mungia. Woo! Gangbusters. I've been saying that fight for a while.

That's a fun, fun fight. Think about how loud that arena would be all the Guatemalans and Mexicans. You don't understand what Lester's last fight was like. It was out of control. I watched. We're going, he's fighting again in the end of August,

and we're going to an arena in L.A. and it's going to be gang busters. Nice. So, yeah, I thought Mungia looked awesome and revitalized his career. He was throwing wicked combinations, digging to it. I loved it.

We talked about the lack of combination, punching and boxing. I was loving that fight, watching him, one, two, three to the body, you know, awesome stuff. He looked well-rounded, very well-rounded.

And he looked super, he was in good shape. He was a really good shape, which he, I mean, he always is, but like he looked, he looked strong. He looked like he was much more solid than we've seen him. Like, the Saras fights, he looked, he looked vulnerable. He didn't look like that. Yeah.

Oscar Duarte did not look good. Split decision loss, a win, sorry. Split decision win to Angel Fierro. Duarte, I could not cut the ring off. I mean, Fierro was there for the taking. Who knows? Maybe over-trained. Got to keep in mind the hitching.

situation was supposed to fight in February. Did he stop camp? Did he just keep going? If you're fighting in February, when are you starting your camp? November? Well, I saw him in between. We were at Robert Garcia's gym and I saw Duarte. He was in the gym, but he looked like he had taken some time off. So the start, stop is tough. The up. It's more of a skill thing. The up-down is an issue in terms of training camp. He could have definitely been overtrained. Robert Garcia tells me he's one of the hardest workers in the gym. There's that.

But also the letdown of being on the cusp of fighting for a world title, thinking you're going to be a world champion, all the media drama surrounding the fallout, and then you're taking a step down with a guy like Fierro who like they know each other. Missed weight too. Fierro always misses weight.

Fierro, if there's nothing else Fierro is going to miss weight and he's going to overperform. He's going to overperform. He's going to overperform and lose. That's, that's Fierro to a T. His last three performances, two blown weights, and he kicked his opponent, got disqualified. That was insane. He also, he lost Alex Martin a couple years ago. I was looking at his record. I'm like, oh man, D'Artre should destroy this guy. And then, life for death. Like, he's just, that's just the way the guy is. I Dorta could not cut the ring off

at all. He was chasing him around. I really had high hopes for this fight. It was so a fun fight. It was like some, you know, controversy, intrigue towards the end. It's a little fun fight, but I was hyping this up to be, I was like, this is going to be an all-out brawl, can't miss brawl. I thought Duarte would be able to chase him down better. But he gets to win, Duarte. He's looking for the WBC route, according to him.

Ask him right on Thursday. That's the Dalton Smith Puello, but Dalton Smith got hurt. Jose Sanchez defeated Jorge Chavez. That was a 122 pound fight, which was awesome. Late knockdown. Um, great fight. Brutal, brutal. Brutal.

Uh, back and forth, they went at 122. Love that fight. Ishmael Flores. Upsets Isaac Lucero. He was a big time underdog. I think he's plus 500 underdog. Ishmael Flores. Lands 350 punches in 10 rounds.

That dude. By, look like a pit bull. They, they got the wrong guy, man. Argentina. Yeah. Yeah. I was,

well, it was also helpful. Lucero has the worst defense I've ever seen. Lucero doesn't have a whole lot going for him. He is a very built-up guy. They were looking, he got his little, quote-unquote, red hair. They're trying to build this next Canelo. The guy just is not at the level at all. No, I mean, I fell for it too.

I had a lot of people telling me that this is the next, not next, but like this guy could be an all-action type of fight. I thought they were the opposite guys when they were in the ring. Yes. I'm like, wow, look at this, look at this stud. And then I was like, oh, no. that's not Lusero. Yeah, but that was still a fun fight.

350 landed punches in 10 rounds, bro. Like 300, get over 200 landed punches and a 12-arm fight. I was like, wow, it's a good pace. Over 300 rarefied air. Ridic. 350 and 10 rounds? Ridiculous.

Defense just left in the dressing room. Out the window. So that was the full card, awesome card. Really fun time at Team Owe of Great Week in Vegas. everyone that tuned in, really appreciated. We put out a ton. We had you covered in every possible department. We had the three podcasts.

As usual. Three podcasts, probably 25 videos, original content with all the biggest names in boxing, and then live content on Fight Night, live coverage in the pbv.com chat. We don't sleep. We don't sleep. Tomorrow I'm taking, I'm doing what I usually do after a Vegas trip. I'm just going to do nothing. I might lay outside.

I will decompress. Watch the Knicks as they battle the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference semifinals. They put a freaking beat down on the Hawks in game six. 50 point win. Holy shit. That's it. That's our show. I'm going to go get some rest.

Licked by wounds. Unpack my bags. What do you got going on? I'm going to eat my bowl of ramen that's been sitting here getting cold. and then I'm going to go to work tomorrow like usual. ProBox TV. We'll have another podcast for you later on in the week as we gear up for Wardley and Dubah next Saturday.

May is rocking, man. Love it. May is here, guys. Best month in boxing in a long time. Enjoy it. Protect yourself at all times. Keep your hands up at all times. Stay out of those DMs. Good night.