As expected, this year’s traditional Cinco De Mayo boxing extravaganza will be headlined by Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez vs. “The Monster” David Benavidez.
Ramirez’s defense of his two cruiserweight world titles against Benavidez, the current WBC light heavyweight titleholder, was announced Friday by Premier Boxing Champions.
The event will take place on May 2 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The pay-per-view will be available for purchase via Amazon’s Prime Video as well as traditional cable and satellite providers.
Ramirez, 48-1 (30 KOs), is a former super middleweight titleholder and light heavyweight title challenger whose sole defeat came against Dmitry Bivol at 175lbs in 2022. Ramirez then moved up to cruiserweight.
A resident of Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico, Ramirez won the WBA cruiserweight title from Arsen Goulamirian via unanimous decision in March 2024, outpointed Chris Billam-Smith to unify with the WBO belt in November of that same year, and last performed in June 2025, when he defeated Yuniel Dorticos on the scorecards. He then took the rest of the year off after undergoing shoulder surgery in July.
Ramirez, 34, was initially expecting to return in January against Robin Sirwan Safar, 19-0 (13 KOs), but Safar was still recovering from a hand injury. So Ramirez’s first bout back will come against Benavidez.
Benavidez, 31-0 (25 KOs), is a 29-year-old from Arizona who previously was a two-time titleholder at super middleweight. He arrived at light heavyweight in 2024 after recognizing that he would most likely never receive a fight with then-champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
Benavidez defeated Oleksandr Gvozdyk to pick up the WBC’s interim belt at 175lbs, earning Benavidez a shot at whomever sat on the throne after the first bout between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol. Beterbiev won but went straight into a rematch with Bivol, and so Benavidez beat David Morrell Jnr in February 2025, adding a secondary WBA belt.
Bivol triumphed in the sequel with Beterbiev to become undisputed but vacated his WBC title. Benavidez was then upgraded, and he made his first defense last November with a seventh-round TKO of Anthony Yarde.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
