On Friday night, Dante Benjamin looks to be matched tough once again when he faces fellow unbeaten fighter Angel Lozano in an eight-round light heavyweight fight at Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee, Florida. Seeing the ‘0’ at the end of an opponent’s record could psyche a lot of young boxers out before they get to the ring, but Benjamin has thrived so far in his career against undefeated opposition.
Benjamin has fought five previous opponents who were undefeated, knocking out four of them – Darin Austin, Emmanueal Austin, Corey Thompson and Herman Rendon – in the first round, while winning a shutout over the fifth, Kevin Johnson. In fact, he didn't fight an opponent who had previously lost until his fourth pro fight.
Benjamin doesn’t see it as him rising to the occasion against undefeated boxers; he just treats them all as serious threats.
“I just take everybody that's in front of me seriously,” said Benjamin, 13-0-1 (9 KOs). “I’m trying to get to the next level. So no matter who it is in front of me, I know that they’re coming in to win, and I’ve got to work hard and put forth my best effort no matter who it is.”
That’s a mindset he developed early on in life, growing up in Cleveland, Ohio’s tough Buckeye Road section. As a youngster, he frequently got into fistfights around the neighborhood, feeling he had to prove himself whenever other kids tested him. Looking back, he understands that toughness is a good trait to have, but so are intelligence and foresight.
“It gave me a little toughness, but I think it really taught me how to be smarter, because tough is not always going to win,” said Benjamin. “I got to see what I didn't want to be growing up. I just wanted to be away from that neighborhood, like, I don't want to be a crab in a bucket growing up there.”
Dante’s father, Dante Snr, found a way to channel that energy into something positive, enrolling him into boxing lessons at age seven under trainer Renard Safo, who remains his trainer to this day. He was only supposed to have one boxing match, but those plans changed once he won the state Silver Gloves title as an eight-year-old. That led to him having over 100 amateur fights, and eventually winning multiple national titles as a teenager, including the 2018 Youth National Championships and the Junior Open Championships in 2016 and 2017.
He made the USA national team three years in a row, and won a gold medal at the Emil Jechev Tournament in Bulgaria in 2019.
Still, even as he excelled in boxing, he also found his place on the basketball court. As a shooting guard and small forward for the Shaker Heights High School team, Benjamin averaged a double-double in his senior year and provided the grit that his team needed to become one of the best teams in the city. Still, despite how he excelled on the court, his coach, Danny Young, acknowledged that he was just borrowing his talents, telling Cleveland.com in the aftermath of their team defeating a higher ranked school in 2020, thanks in large part to Benjamin’s efforts, “He is a professional fighter who happens to love basketball.”
He says that, although a lot of people felt the 6ft 3ins Benjamin could have a future on the court, his love was always boxing. When schools came around to recruit him to play for their college teams, his coach would redirect them to more interested players.
“It was never a thought for me,” said Benjamin. “I always knew I wanted to be a boxer. Every time a coach would ask about me, my coach was like, he wants to be a boxer.”
So far, that dedication has paid off. He turned pro in 2022 after signing with Top Rank, and has since parted ways with that promotion, fighting exclusively on ProBox cards since 2024. He is managed by Split-T Management, and still trains at home in Cleveland, traveling to Ohio cities like Columbus and Youngstown to spar with pros like Atif Oberlton and Kiante Irving.
Against Lozano, 8-0 (6 KOs), of Pomona, California, he will be facing an opponent who matches his height, even if he doesn’t have the same amateur background. Benjamin says he has seen a bit of video on him, and is confident that he can adjust to any approach his opponent brings.
“I know that he likes to be aggressive if you’re standing in one place and come forward. So I want to take his tools away from him that he’s used to using,” said Benjamin.
“I think the style doesn't really matter to me. I think I can adjust no matter what the style is. So that's the whole point of me fighting anybody and learning to fight different styles,” said Benjamin.
The Benjamin-Lozano fight will come right before the co-main event on a card headlined by Najee Lopez vs Manuel Gallegos. Lopez, like Benjamin, has moved from ProBox undercard fighter to the main card, and now is a headliner. Benjamin sees himself making the same progression by the end of 2026, and sees even bigger goals for himself in the future.
“I think I'll be ready soon to be in the main event picture. I'm just taking it one fight at a time, and as long as everything keeps going good, I'll be ready soon,” said Benjamin.
“I want to be a world champion one day. But what really keeps me motivated is my family and the people around me and my coach Safo, because I've been with my same coach since I was seven years old, so he watched me grow up and everything, and he poured a lot into me too.”
