LAS VEGAS – It was 20 years ago this weekend when Oscar De La Hoya took full ownership of Cinco de Mayo weekend, igniting a tradition that continues Saturday with a new successor making his debut headlining the boxing holiday.
But as De La Hoya had an Olympic gold medal fueling his fame, as next-in-line Floyd Mayweather Jnr leaned on his victory over De La Hoya and as Saul “Canelo” Alvarez was accompanied by a fervent following in Mexico, David Benavidez arrives here thanks purely to his own tenacity.
Phoenix’s two-division champion Benavidez, 31-0 (25 KOs), started as the overweight kid brother to the gifted Jose Benavidez Jnr.
While Jose Jnr would set records by being the youngest to win a national Golden Gloves title and sign with promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank, David found himself rejected by Top Rank and De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions.
The verbal rejections included “He doesn’t have the talent” and “He’s not the same as his brother.”
David’s first seven fights were obscure appearances in Mexico while he was still a teenager, including one at a Tijuana greyhound racetrack, before he “graduated” to club shows in Phoenix.
What never waned, however, was a father’s faith.
Jose Benavidez Snr, who still trains David, was born in Mexico City, then moved with his family to the US at 11, falling on hard times and saying he experienced homelessness and gang life before fathering Jose Jnr at age 17.
“I did whatever I could to survive. I had to live. I had to learn,” Jose Snr said. “I remember writing a song for Junior where I told him, ‘I am so proud of you, I love you.’ I was so scared, though. I didn’t know what to do, but I knew I had to love him.”
Where other young fathers have fled, Jose Snr said, “I was there. I never gave up.”
In boxing, he saw an outlet for himself and the boys – and it became an obsessive pursuit.
“The only credit I’m going to take is I made them push by taking them to places they’ve never been before,” Jose Snr said. “I told them not to be afraid, that they could do anything in life. My job was to push them and make them disciplined. The rest was on them.”
As Jose Jnr was shining at age 17, his dad would tell others, “I have another son better than Junior.”
“I saw something different, a kid who wanted to be more than his brother, a kid who wanted to prove it to the world. I saw so much talent when he was sparring world champions at 13, 14 and he could hold his own. To do that at his age, it says so much about a fighter.”
Jose Jnr’s success was pivotal in the process.
“Because he’s the one who started all this, by setting all those records, looking like a future superstar … David looked up to him as a hero and wanted to be more than his brother. Otherwise, they weren’t going to look at him,” Jose Snr said.
“David didn’t possess the same super-talent as Junior, but he possesses the hard work, dedication and discipline, and he was willing to work as hard as he has to become who he is.”
That equates to the inspirational lesson in all this.
“If you don’t have natural talent but you have the discipline and the heart and the desire, that can take you a long way,” Jose Snr said.
Building up Jose Jnr and “The Monster,” as Mike Tyson first coined David, required equipment, entry fees and travel costs, and as Jose Snr had purchased a home and car for his family, he soon found the boxing costs escalating to a worrisome level.
“Don’t even remind me about that,” Jose Snr told BoxingScene. “To think about where we were, when I was borrowing from one person and then paying off another … I spent every penny I had, not knowing where I was going. But I knew I was trying the best I could to get my kids to their goals.
“I have no idea how I made it through. I would spend my rent money to get through.”
He recalls being evicted from three homes, cars getting repossessed, watching his marriage crumble.
“My credit went from so good – I had bought three houses – to so bad. I owed so many people, credit cards and all that. I had so many creditors and banks calling me, I wouldn’t even answer the phone anymore.”
It’s a part of the Benavidez family story that Jose Snr says was so dark, “I never even told my kids. It’s not that I’m ashamed or embarrassed. I lost everything taking these guys to the next level.
“Time and again, I’d repeat to myself, ‘They’ve got to get to the next level.’”
One of those expenses was taking David to train alongside Julian Jackson in the Virgin Islands, and the investment in family began to grow when Jackson phoned veteran promoter Sampson Lewkowicz and told him to sign David.
“Hey, you’ve got to see this kid,” Jackson said. “He beat the [crap] out of your fighter. This guy is really good. We love him.”
While Jose Jnr won an NABF 140lbs title in 2014, he later got shot in the leg in Phoenix and saw his career diminish, even though he gave Terence Crawford a quality bout in 2018 and also fought former two-division champion Danny Garcia.
But Lewkowicz was so enamored with David, he woul tell reporters and veteran fight men that his fighter would become the youngest-ever super middleweight world champion, which the power-punching David Benavidez achieved in 2017 at age 20.
“Deep in my heart, I knew something like this would happen,” Benavidez Snr said Tuesday before putting his son through a light workout session in preparation for Saturday night’s attempt to capture a third division title versus unified WBO/WBA champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, of Mexico, in a Prime Video/DAZN pay-per-view main event at T-Mobile Arena.
What fostered such a belief in the father?
“I don’t know, just a feeling in my heart that … even though every day was a sad day with so much pressure, I knew there was going to be a happy day,” Jose Snr said.
“I was very close to giving up, would go to sleep and tell myself, ‘That’s it, no more.’ But I never gave up. I lost my marriage because I was lost in the boxing [even before the brothers became teenagers], so crazy about it.
“I’ve tried to erase those memories, and I’ve had to forget about them because they were so hurtful and dragged me down so much.”
But when Benavidez Snr watched Jose Jnr perform on film in “Creed III,” and as he takes David to this global event, he says, “It’s just a dream come true. I’m so proud and happy where we are, I could die tomorrow and I’d be so full of appreciation.
“I don’t think a lot of people would do what I did, and believe and never give up through those times. It was so hard to do.”
Saturday’s bout represents a critical moment for the family, as David seeks to elevate alongside the legends of the past while emphasizing why Alvarez avoided fighting him and how some project him as a future heavyweight champion.
In a recent conference call, David Benavidez spoke of seizing the moment.
"Continuing to move up and challenge world champions shows everyone that I'm serious about what I do, and that I believe in my skills 100 per cent,” he said. “Making more history on May 2 would mean the world to me. At this point in my life, I just want to reach greatness. Winning these titles will definitely put me back in position to continue to push for more greatness. I'm just really happy with where I'm at in my career, and with all the risks I'm taking, because I believe it will all pay off when my career is all said and done.”
The mission, Benavidez Snr said, is to claim control of this treasured fight weekend – having done so deliberately, purposefully, with just “a feeling in my heart.”
“We can’t just win the fight. It’s such an important date in the Mexican culture. You have to look impressive. And that’s exactly what he’s going to do,” Benavidez Snr said of David.
“He’s worked on this opportunity from the time he was 2 years old. This is the perfect time for him in his career, and he’s going to take it over. We’re not going to let this go. It’s one of the biggest, most dangerous fights of his career … but we’ve worked so hard.
“So many tears, so much blood, so many things we did to get here. He is going to keep this date.”
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
