Gavril boxer professional#

“You get into wars with them, and it leads and prepares you into fights,” Benavidez said. Besides sparring with Golovkin, he’s gone up against Kelly Pavlik, Gabriel Rosado and Peter Quillin. He trains in Big Bear, California, with middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin.

Gavril boxer professional#

“I watched my brother do interviews, and him and my dad would interview me, so I would be a little more focused and a litte more relaxed,” Benavidez said.īenavidez has sparred against professional boxers since age 14. He learned from older brother Jose Benavidez, a welterweight contender. That’s not the case with the 6-foot-1-inch Benavidez, who speaks with confidence. Most boxers at 21 are tense under the spotlight and respond with short answers during interviews.

You just have to be a little more cautious. “I’m not going to change the way I fight because I got dropped,” Benavidez said. He followed with a memorable seven-punch knockout over Rogelio Medina in May to earn his title shot. He crushed Sherali Mamajonov in January 2017 with a second-round knockout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. I made a mistake, but I felt I was winning the whole fight besides that hook when I got dropped.”īenavidez’s breakout 2017 has many pundits calling him boxing’s next star. “I was just trying to close down the show because I knew I was fighting in a Mayweather Promotions fight,” Benavidez said. The Phoenix native said the late knockdown is the only reason he’s fighting Gavril again. His 10-fight knockout streak ended against Gavril, and Benavidez tasted the canvas for the first time in his young career.īenavidez dominated the early rounds and hurt Gavril several times, but then his inexperience caught up to him, as did Gavril’s left-counter hook that dropped Benavidez in the 12th round. “I’m the youngest super middleweight champion in history for a reason, and I’m going to show them why.”īenavidez (19-0, 17 knockouts) predicted he would knock out Gavril (18-2, 14 KOs) in the rematch. I’m not just here because they think they handed me the belt. “I’m training for the knockout just to shut him and his team up,” said Benavidez, who turned 21 in December. The Romanian, 31, also questioned Benavidez’s weight after the news conference and called him “fat boy.” Gavril claims he was robbed by the judges who scored it a split decision (117-111, 111-116, 116-111) in favor of Benavidez. Since then, Gavril and Benavidez have traded oral jabs. 8 at the Hard Rock Hotel for the vacant WBC title in one of the best fights of 2017. The Showtime-televised tripleheader airs at 7 p.m.Īt age 20, Benavidez became the youngest super middleweight champion in the division’s history by defeating Gavril on Sept. “I was hoping he was going to do something.”īenavidez will get his wish when the two fight Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in the co-main event to the Danny Garcia-Brandon Rios bout. “As soon as I saw him, I got heated,” Benavidez said last month after the news conference in Los Angeles. A peaceful news conference commenced to promote their rematch. Gavril walked past Benavidez and sat on the opposite side of the stage.

Heidi Fang Las Vegas Review-Journal sitting David Benavidez looked up to his right as Ronald Gavril walked toward him like “The Terminator.”īenavidez’s raging eyes locked in on his opponent sporting a black leather jacket and sunglasses. 17, shadow boxes during the open workouts in Las Vegas, Wednesday, Feb. Welterweight Brandon Rios, who will headline the boxing card at the Mandalay Bay on Feb.