Signed, sealed, and David Benavidez is already working on delivering another performance to further lift his reputation as boxing’s most willing and fierce competitor.

Benavidez’s father, Jose Benavidez Snr, told BoxingScene his WBC light-heavyweight champion son is looking strong during preliminary sessions at the family’s Seattle gym, readying for the staggering 25-pounds move up in weight to meet Mexico’s unified cruiserweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez May 2 in Las Vegas.

That bout, expected to be a joint DAZN-Prime Video pay-per-view, follows Benavidez’s crushing seventh-round TKO of England’s Anthony Yarde in November in Saudi Arabia, a victory that moved him to 31-0 with 25 KOs.

Ramirez 48-1 (30 KOs), meanwhile, is returning from a less-impressive unanimous-decision victory over Cuban veteran Yuniel Dorticos on June 28.

The left-handed Ramirez, 34, required right shoulder surgery following the victory. He planned to take a title defense next week against Robin Safar, but Safar suffered a hand injury in a November victory in Texas and now that fight won’t happen, the elder Benavidez said. 

“I’m glad [it’s off]. No fight is easy. You never know if [Ramirez] could get hurt, or what could happen,” Benavidez Snr said. “Now, we don’t need to worry. The fight is on. Done. Signed by both guys.”

BoxingScene’s Jake Donovan reported Wednesday that May 2 will include another immense showdown on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, when unbeaten and undisputed junior-flyweight champion Naoya Inoue defends his belts versus unbeaten former bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani.

Benavidez-Ramirez furthers the notion from some that the Phoenix fighter is bound to become a heavyweight champion. 

Making this move in weight to meet a unified (WBA, WBO) champion “is a bigger challenge,” Benavidez Snr admitted, but the trainer and son take comfort in the fact David has sparred Ramirez “about 100 times,” with one witness claiming, “Out of those 100 times, I think [‘Zurdo’] looked good once.”

That was a decade ago, when the Benavidez pair helped Ramirez prepare for his shutout victory in a WBO super-middleweight title fight versus Arthur Abraham.

“[Ramirez] called David [by his nickname] ‘Monster’ even back then,” Benavidez Snr said. “We’re excited for that fight.”

Moving up in weight was necessitated by the fact that three-belt light-heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol has expressed interest in a comeback fight from August back surgery in early spring versus IBF mandatory challenger Michael Eifert.

“We wanted to fight Bivol, but he gave the belt away … we’d fight [former 175lbs undisputed champion Artur] Beterbiev or [IBF cruiserweight champion Jai] Opetaia, too, but they weren’t ready … I think either of those could still happen,” Benavidez Snr said.

Yet, a unified cruiserweight title victory likely keeps Benavidez, 29, at 200 pounds and beyond.

And supplanting his rival Canelo Alvarez atop this year’s Cinco de Mayo event in Las Vegas likely means bigger things (and opponents) await.