Inoue and Benavidez Cinco de Mayo Fight Recap
Written by Greg on 5/7/26
Boxing’s premier fight weekend has been Cinco de Mayo weekend for decades. This year did not feature Canelo Alvarez but we got one of the most memorable weekends in recent memory.
Saturday Morning 5/2/26 in Tokyo, Japan on DAZN
Naoya Inoue Shows His Champion Credentials Against Junto Nakatani
What Happened:
Two top 10 Pound-for-Pound fighters still in their prime facing off in the biggest fight in Japanese history. You can’t ask for much more.
The early rounds showed Inoue’s brilliance as he darted in and out like a mongoose picking apart a cobra who couldn’t comprehend what was happening. Nakatani was the bigger fighter with the reach, and he is a fighter who knows how to use distance to his advantage. Inoue was in and out before Nakatani could fire off a counter attack.
Around the 6th round Nakatani began landing counters on Inoue. Inoue slowed down enough to allow Nakatani to start building momentum in the middle of the fight. In the 9th round I witnessed something I have never seen before. Inoue covering up, getting blasted by combination punches and backing up with no response. The first time I have seen Inoue thoroughly lose a round.
Nakatani was making a case for closing out this fight and pulling the upset win over the all time great. Inoue looked tired and unable to stop the barrage of counters coming his way. That all changed with a clash of heads that cut Nakatani. The action was stopped so the ref could look at the cut. Nakatani closed out that round looking like he was the generational fighter.
I had it all tied up going into the championship rounds. In the 11th round Inoue showed why he is tied for #1 in our P4P rankings. He knows how to win. He cracked Nakatani with a punch that caused more damage to Nakatani’s eye. That was the only opening he needed. Inoue came on strong to close out the fight with 2 dominant rounds to secure himself one of the biggest wins of his career.
Saturday Night 5/2/26 in Las Vegas, Nevada on DAZN PPV
David Benavidez Defeats Zurdo Ramirez and Becomes “The Chosen One”
What Happened:
David Benavidez. David Benavidez happened. If you haven’t watched the highlights of this fight, I beg you to stop reading and do that. Nothing I can put into words will adequately describe what David Benavidez did to Zurdo Ramirez. It was masterful and also incredibly mean and destructive.
I don’t want to sound like a crazy person but what Benavidez did was something I have never seen before. Benavidez is known for his hand speed and combination punching. Zurdo was a former 168 lb champion, who challenged Bivol at 175 and lost and then went up and won two belts at cruiserweight. The man is no slouch. He has slow feet but great footwork.
Benavidez basically took his sack out and it was the size of two bowling balls. The man wasted no time in starting his destruction of Zurdo. Benavidez at one point had put together four or five punch combinations that were at least 10 punches or more. Unheard of in this era. Benavidez is a bad bad man. He turned Zurdo’s face into Sloth from Goonies. His hands were as fast as Neo vs Agent Smith in the Matrix.
Benavidez is now the face of North American boxing and in a position to be the face of global boxing. My god is he fun to watch. The best part of Benavidez is that he talks the talk and then walks the walk. He ducks no one. He is actively seeking out the biggest and best fights. In his post fight interview he confirmed his plan to go back down to 175 and take on Pound-For-Pound great Dmitry Bivol.
Boxing is in good (and freaking fast) hands.