Benavidez vs Opetaia

Benavidez already making excuses at the post fight presser not to fight Jai.

 

You've got to be kidding me. Benavidez obviously took ramirez as an opponent because he is beatable and he knows it even more than anyone else because he sparred him A LOT. That also explains why benavidez was a big fat favorite going into that fight.

Ramirez took this fight because it gave him more money than fighting opetaia. But i assume he saw better chances of winning, too.

For benavidez it was a great opportunity to get a belt at a highet weight class, become more widely recognized and hyped (!) for yet another circus feat (worked for crawford, too). And then called out canelo while being more general and defensive in his answer to the question if bivol might be a good next opponent.

Bivol that already dismantled ramirez.
Bivol that could fight at super middle.

And now people imagine benavidez would beat opetaia. Watch the first briedis fight and then ponder how much benavidez would have to dish out to slow down opetaia.

Benavidez has very good handspeed, but he is all upper Body, no feet. Opetaia can go in and out very nicely if he decides to. He has fast hands too. He has great power. He has no trouble taking punches and keeping the right mentality. And he is a real cruiserweight.

Opetaia would stop benavidez. If benavidez would see himself winning, he would fight opetaia. That would put him in p4p discussions. Instead even before the fight he said he would instantly go down to light heavy again.

And then he hopelessly calls out canelo. How is that going to Work? Canelo is meeting him at light heavy? When he was younger he didn't even dare fight him at super middle. ...

Benavidez is really good, but this thread is hype beyond reason

 

Fantastic fight let’s see it!

 

I think Opetaia is the favorite but it would be a very interesting matchup, especially after Benavidez's great performance against Zurdo, in his cruiserweight debut. Opetaia is definitely no Zurdo.

In my opinion Bivol would be a worse opponent for Benavidez. Sure, we're talking about 175 pounds, not 200, but the Russian's footwork (the best in boxing today in my opinion) is a real obstacle. In any case it would be an interesting matchup against Bivol, too, but if I had to choose, I'd rather see Benavidez-Opetaia.

 

Benavidez has superior speed, higher volume, better variety, and a better engine. Opetaia has more power, better footwork, and a better chin.

Based on last night, I think it’s a 50/50 fight. At the end of the day, Benavidez just done a job on what was the second-best cruiserweight in the world. Meanwhile, Opetaia’s best wins are two highly competitive 115-113 style wins over a still-very-good but still likely past-his-prime Briedis. Opetaia also didn’t look nearly as impressive against average jobbers like Glanton or Cinkara as the Monster just did against a multi-weight world champion.

If Benavidez was known for having a very good chin, then I would favour him slightly.

 

Benna's not beating Opa. Opa would sizzle him inside of 9 rounds. Tbh I don't know who wins. It would be a hell of a fight.

 

Jai is signed to a closed league. How is that an excuse

 

lol

 

I didn’t give him much of a chance before it, because I wasn’t sure how his power would carry up, I thought he’d go the distance against Ramirez.

Although Ramirez looks a bit fleshy himself at CW, he did appear much bigger than Benavidez, and also he’s not a really undersized CW by any means.

I absolutely give Benavidez a chance against Opetaia after that performance, and it’s at a point where I even don’t know who to pick.

One thing is that when Ramirez was landing on the gloves of Benavidez, it seemed to be shaking him about at times, not due to being rocked, but simply the weight of the punches.

Opetaia doesn’t look like a big CW, doesn’t look like he rehydrates that much, but he certainly is faster and hits harder than Ramirez.

And at one point, I saw Ramirez land a right hook that many seem to have missed, and it looked relatively big, but it didn’t do much to Benavidez.

I can’t help but think, if that was Opetaia, what would happen? If Ramirez landed clean like that, he’s much slower and hits much less hard than Opetaia, and I don’t think Benavidez could take the equivalent from Opetaia.

if Benvide can get inside, remain tight and more defensively responsible, I can see a way that he’d win, but he really can’t afford Opetaia time to get his punches off nor can he afford to get careless with his defence.

 

I would have favored Opetaia clearly prior to last Saturday but Benavidez's performance against Zurdo really has me convinced that this could be a 50/50 fight. This is a big fight at Cruiserweight that NEEDS to happen this year. Either man can get stopped and it would be absolute fireworks.

 

We might have already seen the Bivol v Benavidez fight had Bivol not dropped the WBC belt with Benavidez as mandatory .

 

Regardless of whether or not Benavidez has a chance, this fight needs to be made.

I don’t think Benavidez wants it. He got stun a few tines by Zurdo. Those same punches from Opetai drops him. Opeta isn’t a stationary punching bag and has the hand speed to keep up.

 

Bivol chose to vacate the WBC world title. It was April 2025 and rumors were that Bivol had opted out of facing Benavidez (who held the interim WBC title) for a third match with Beterbiev, a third match that hasn't happened yet. Bivol will face Eifert at the end of the month, then we'll see what the future holds.

 

he straight ducked david, lets be honest about it. which shouldnt surprise anyone, it took him 7 years to fight beterbiev who held hardware in his own division. hes a very talented boxer, but he isnt about that life. hes an athlete/business man, not a born fighter.

 

So Bivol dropped the WBC belt like I said .