They sparred numerous rounds during their rise to the top of the sport, including during Ramirez's preparation for his world title shot at super middleweight against Arthur Abraham in 2016. Ramirez went on to win every round on the judges’ scorecard to become Mexico’s first 168-pound world champion.

More than 10 years later, they’ll ditch the sparring gloves and headgear to meet for Ramirez’s WBA and WBO cruiserweight titles in the main event of a PBC on Prime PPV at T-Mobile Arena.

“We have a lot of history together,” Benavidez told The Ring. “I know it's going to be a great fight. I know he's going to come in prepared, but I know what I've done with Zurdo in the past, and what I can do to him, so I'm extremely confident.”

Benavidez (31-0, 25 KOs) is also a former world champion at super middleweight. He currently holds the WBC light heavyweight title and defended it for the first time on Nov. 22, stopping Anthony Yarde in seven rounds. The 29-year-old from Phoenix, Arizona, is 3-0 at 175 pounds and plans to move back down after facing Ramirez.

Ramirez (48-1, 30 KOs) is 4-0 at cruiserweight. The 34-year-old southpaw won the WBA title in his second fight in the division, a unanimous decision over Arsen Goulamirian in March 2024. He became a unified champion seven months later when he beat Chris Billam-Smith for his WBO title.

Ramirez defended his unified titles once, beating Yuniel Dorticos by unanimous decision on June 28.

At the press conference to announce the fight on Saturday, Benavidez and Ramirez’s trainer, Julian Chua, both touted the sparring sessions as great work and PPV-quality rounds.

And while a common notion among boxers and trainers is that sparring sessions aren't a harbinger of the outcome of an actual fight, Benavidez believes they’ll prove vital in his chance to become a three-division champion.

“I heard people say that sparring doesn't matter,” he said. “They don't know s---. They're not top fighters. When you go in there, beat the s--- out of a fighter in a sparring session, you could do that in the fight. Sparring is sparring, but the way that real, top upper echelon fighters spar is not sparring. It's a real fight.

"Everything that I need to learn from Zurdo, I've learned it already, and I'm going to use all that information to my advantage.”