DOUBLE COVERAGE PODCAST
David Benavidez Says Canelo Passed Him The Torch: “It’s My Era Now, I’m the Face of Boxing”
25 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What insights does David Benavidez share about his upcoming fight?
Jake Paul is out here about to fight Anthony Joshua. Honestly, and I'm not even lying right now, that gave me more confidence for myself too because I'm thinking like, bro, that's a super dangerous fight and he had no fear. If that man does not have fear in his boxing career, how am I going to be scared of anything in his boxing career? I've been boxing for 27 years.
What's up, guys? Mystic Zach here. Welcome back to episode 18 of Double Coverage. Today, I'm honored to be joined by the most avoided man in boxing, the Mexican monster, Mr. David Benavidez. How are you doing?
I'm doing great, my brother.
Chapter 2: How does Benavidez feel about the passing of the torch in boxing?
Thank you guys for inviting me here, and I just feel blessed to be here. We're about like 10 days out for the fight, so I'm just very excited.
Yeah, you seem switched on.
Yeah. No, yeah, well, I've been locked in since January. It's about to be five months, and I've been working extremely hard. And, you know, this is a very big, pivotal moment in my career and in my life. And I think after this fight, this is why I passed that threshold and to finally become the face of boxing.
You know, but first things first, we're going to go in there and give a great performance, give the people what they want to see, and, you know, come back home with two more titles.
That's exactly what I was going to say.
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Chapter 3: What challenges does David Benavidez anticipate in his fight against Zurdo Ramirez?
It seems like this weekend signifies a passing of the torch, right? For the Mexican people, Cinco de Mayo weekend, you're the main Mexican fighter headlining this weekend. It's a big deal.
Yeah, no, yeah. It's been a long time coming, bro. I've been... I've been professional for 13 years. The first time I won my first world championship, I was 20 years old. I'm 29 years old now, so it's my first time fighting on Cinco de Mayo weekend. So it definitely feels like the passing of the torch.
Chapter 4: How has David Benavidez prepared differently for moving up to Cruiserweight?
But like I said, I don't want to get ahead of myself too much. First things first, go in there, get the job done, and give the fans what they want to see.
No, this is your toughest challenge yet. I mean, you guys have a combined record of 79-1. How ridiculous is that? And then Zerto is a guy, first of all, you're moving up a weight class, and it's the biggest jump out of any weight class. It's 25 whole pounds, so you're really challenging yourself. And you already had this fight set up. You announced it after your last fight.
Yeah, I think it's been apparent that I've been trying to make the biggest and best fights happen.
Chapter 5: What role does mental preparation play in Benavidez's training?
Some things have happened that I haven't got those opportunities, you know, but still we make the best of what we have. You know, obviously we wanted a Canelo fight. That fight didn't happen. Also, I won the belt, the WBC title. I was next in line to fight for all the belts to unify the belts against Demetra Beeble. That didn't happen either.
So instead of me just staying around in light heavyweight and saying, you know what, I'm going to just do a regular title defense. I said, no, let me challenge myself. You know, this is something we've been working on behind the scenes for like about two years now. And I know Sudo Ramirez really well.
Chapter 6: How important is it for boxers to build a personal brand?
I've been working with him since I was 17 years old. And I said, if there was an opportunity that I could get that fight, I'm shooting right up right away. And, you know, the opportunity presented itself. And it couldn't possibly be on a better date. You know, two Mexican fighters. This is the first time there's going to be a Cruiserweight Championship fight with two Mexicans.
And it's on Cinco de Mayo. So, you know, there's a lot of heat on this fight.
Normally Mexican fighters are not as big as you.
Yeah, yeah.
Chapter 7: What does Benavidez think about Jake Paul's impact on boxing?
So this is something different. You know, there's no... This is the biggest... As in size and weight-wise, this is the biggest Mexican championship fight there's ever been, you know what I mean? So going up to Cruiserweight, you know what I mean? And I'm very excited. I'm very excited to showcase my skills, and I'm 100% ready.
And it seems like you're also targeting that outside media to get you that push to become the face of boxing. We see you on magazine covers. We see you on people's streams. You're running with Damian Lillard.
Chapter 8: What are David Benavidez's future aspirations beyond boxing?
How has that transition been from not being the guy that only the hardcore fans know about and tout, but being someone that everyone knows and really becoming that star?
Yeah, so it's definitely putting in the work, you know, getting the right people around me to put me in a position to do this. You know, shout out to my PR, you know, Irma. Our company, they've been working really hard. They've been giving me these photo covers. And, you know, I've been doing my part as well, you know, doing a lot of interviews, you know, English and in Spanish.
And, you know, just putting myself out there, just trying to work on the other side of boxing. You know, at the end of the day, it's not just about the physical and just training. Now it's about, you know, doing these interviews, doing these interactions, doing these collabs, doing the streams. You know, I did one with Oblivion, did one with Ryan Garcia, Neon.
You know, I met up with Damian Lillard. I've been meeting up with a lot of people, so I've just been doing the other part of this job that's going to get me past that threshold.
When you're with a Hall of Famer like Damian Lillard, are you picking his brain about kind of things that he goes through in his life?
So no, not really. Me and Damien Lillard, we're friends from a long time ago. I met him because he's a massive boxing fan. When I moved out to Oregon, if I'm a little embarrassed to say, I first seen him at the gym. He was training at my friend's gym, Sam Aaron. He's my strength and conditioning trainer. He was over there. I didn't know who he was. I mean, I don't watch basketball.
But what I really respected about Damian Lillard is, you know, he gave me the respect and the attention, like he was really into what I was talking to, you know, without even knowing me, you know, he gave me the respect and he was already Damian Lillard, you know what I mean? This was like 2019. So he was already at the height of his career.
So for him giving me the respect and listening to me like that, and he just made me feel good about myself, you know? After I left, I'm like, who is that guy? Damien Lillard. And I looked him up. I'm like, oh, this guy is big. He's one of the greatest basketball players of all time. So that just spoke volumes about him and his character. And ever since then, I see him here and there.
And he comes. Just like the other day, we went to go run Mount Charleston. He's a great dude, man. He's a great competitor. He's one of the greatest NBA players of all time. And honestly, I want to see him in a celebrity boxing match because he trains harder than everybody. He's got hands? He has hands. So I want to see him knock a celebrity out. But he's a great dude, bro.
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