Gruelling sparring footage of David Benavidez and Gilberto Ramirez released before fight

If the sparring footage is anything to go by, then boxing fans are in for a treat when David Benavidez and Gilberto Ramirez collide.

WBC light heavyweight champion Benavidez jumps up to cruiserweight on Saturday night to challenge Ramirez for his unified WBA and WBO 200lbs titles in Las Vegas.

Getty

The pair are very familiar with each other, having sparred multiple times during their stint as stablemates at the Hill Street Boxing Gym in Long Beach, California.

Benavidez first shared the ring with Ramirez when he was just 16 years old and was a primary sparring partner for ‘Zurdo’ ahead of his WBO super middleweight title fight with Arthur Abraham in 2016.

One of their sparring sessions from the Abraham camp was filmed by Golden Boy Promotions, with clips of it appearing on the promoter’s fight week ‘Camp House’ docuseries ahead of this weekend’s Cinco De Mayo showdown.

Both men are seen exchanging heavy artillery as former training partner John ‘Scrappy’ Ramirez paints a picture of the high-octane battle.

Eye-witness account of David Benavidez and Gilberto Ramirez’s spar

“Whoever is hitting the bag stops. Whoever is talking, their conversation drops,” recalls Ramirez.

“You got David and ‘Zurdo’ in the ring, and then the first round starts. You want to see what’s going to happen.

“The jabs, the decision making, everything is happening so fast, you are just trying to process it.

“And then there is this back and forth. David lands a combination, pop, pop, pop.

“Then ‘Zurdo’ lands a combination, and it just keeps going back and forth. You’re entertained the whole time.

“That is just in sparring, think about what will happen come fight night.

“You don’t get everything in here; it gets better come fight night.

“You have got no headgear, smaller gloves and the crowd watching.”

Benavidez estimates that he has shared around 300 rounds with Ramirez.

And he intends to use all of the information he has downloaded come fight night.

“The thing about me is when I spar someone, that knowledge always stays with me,” Benavidez told Ring Magazine.

“Obviously, he’s gotten better and became champion. But I think he was faster back then.

Getty

“The movements I remember. So, all I have to do is go off the last movements I remember from sparring him, and just kind of go off the speed that I remember from it.

“That’s going to be enough for me. I’m definitely going to capitalise on a lot of stuff and also the stuff I’ve been working on now, a lot more than I did six years ago.

“So, it’s just all the stuff I remember from back then, all the stuff I’m studying now and all the stuff I’m learning, and I think I’m going to be levels above this guy.”

Ramirez gave a blunter take on their spars.

“We beat each other, we tried to be real competitive,” he said.

Boxing schedule

For all the upcoming fights and results this year, check out talkSPORT.com’s  boxing schedule.