Ramirez backs Benavidez to beat Gavril, wants him in the future

By Ryan Burton

WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez (36-0) and and WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez have shared the ring many times as sparring partners in the Los Angeles area.

While they battle in the ring, they are friends outside of it.  Both men have fights scheduled for February.  Ramirez will look to make the third defense of his belt Saturday night when he faces the unknown Habib Ahmed (25-0-1) of Ghana.

Benavidez returns on February 17th when he faces Ronald Gavril in a rematch of their September bout that was for the vacant WBC title.

Benavidez was floored in the 12th round but was able to escape the ring with a narrow victory and the title.  Ramirez is confident that Benavidez will win more convincingly the second time around.

"I think he now knows him better and he will leave the ring with his hand raised again. He is a great fighter," said Ramirez.

Even though they are friends Ramirez understands that boxing is a business first and he said that he is more than willing to face Benavidez in an unification in the future.  He believes that the fight will continue to get bigger as long as they keep on winning.

"I would love to fight him. I want to him to defend his title and continuing winning so that it would be a bigger fight either at 168 or 175.  We have done a lot of sparring and I know it would be a great fight. We are friends but we know it is part of the sport," Ramirez told BoxingScene.com.

Ramirez made history in the co-main event to the Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley welterweight pay-per-view on April 9, 2016, when he became México's first fighter to win a super middleweight world title.  Entering the fight as the top world-rated contender, Ramirez gave a virtuoso performance over the defending WBO champion Arthur Abraham, as all three judges scored it as a 120-108 blitzkrieg.

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