Fan-favourite light-heavyweight ruler David Benavidez is set for a tough challenge against Gilberto Ramirez in two months’ time. Ahead of that bout, ‘The Mexican Monster’ has named the opponent who has given him his hardest fight to date.

Benavidez was crowned as the youngest super-middleweight world champion in history when he defeated Ronald Gavril by split-decision back in 2017, before a more dominant win in their rematch.

The Phoenix-born powerhouse then became a two-time champion at 168lbs, but lost the belt for a second time after missing weight and then continuously campaigned for a showdown with new champion Canelo Alvarez, but to no avail.

Benavidez overcame David Lemieux, Caleb Plant and Demetrius Andrade whilst in hot pursuit of Canelo, eventually moving up to light-heavyweight when he realised that the fight was not happening.

There, the now 29-year-old has trumped Oleksandr Gvozdyk, David Morrell and Anthony Yarde in impressive displays, during which time he has got his hands on the WBC light-heavyweight world title.

When speaking to streamer Neon on Kick, Benavidez picked out Plant as the man who gave him his toughest fight, despite his unanimous-decision victory.

“Who was the toughest fight? Everybody kind of has a lot of different stuff that they do, I would say that probably the hardest fight that I have had was with Caleb Plant.

“It was such a big moment, there was a lot of animosity towards each other and he is a great fighter. He fought a good fight, we had a great performance, both of us.”

The two-division conqueror takes on Ramirez on Saturday, May 2, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where the unified cruiserweight world champion will presumably overtake Plant as Benavidez’s most difficult dance partner yet.