“My Dad Slapped the Sh*t Up”: David Benavidez Reveals How Fear of His Father Turned Him Into ‘The Mexican Monster’

The Benavidez family was shaped by the school of hard knocks. The ‘Mexican Monster’ David Benavidez and his brother Jose Benavidez Jr. faced a lot of trials and tribulations to get to where they are in life. Much of the credit also has to go to Jose Benavidez Sr. Growing up as an abandoned child in Mexico who was left under the care of his 80-year-old frail grandmother, he was left to fend for himself. From working in fields to eating discarded food found in garbage bins, survival was a struggle. His woes continued after he moved to the United States to be with his mother at the age of 11. After getting kicked out of school in eighth grade, much of his adolescent and adult life was spent being engaged in criminal and gang-related activities.

However, Jose Benavidez Sr was determined not to let his kids tread down the same path. Singlehandedly, he nurtured the boxing bug in the Benavidez brothers and developed a workman-like ethic from their childhood. There was no room for complacency. As David Benavidez looks back at his childhood and his developing years in boxing, he has nothing but gratitude for his father. A hard taskmaster and disciplinarian, he made sure that the brothers didn’t take any shortcut to success. Oh! another thing, quitting was not an option. In a conversation with former UFC legends Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo on their podcast show Pound4Pound, the two-time WBC super-middleweight champion revealed what it was like to train under his father’s watchful eyes.

David Benavidez laid bare his thoughts about his father who didn’t let him give up on his dreams. “I give him credit because I’ve tried to quit a lot of times. He never let me,” the Mexican Monster admitted. Furthermore, the fear of disappointing his father always played in the back of his mind. After all, licks were involved if something went wrong with the training regimen. “If I don’t train I get disciplined you know what I mean. So I was really scared of my dad for a long time,” he said.

However, looking back, he has no hard feelings, as he considered the treatment necessary at that time to hone him into a boxer worthy of the moniker ‘The Mexican Monster’. “Sometimes bro, you need to learn the hard way. I rather get slapped by my dad, my dad make me cry, than me getting knocked out in the ring. That’s how I grew up, you know. If I didn’t do something right, my dad slapped the sh*t up,” Benavidez recalled.

The 29-year-old boxer started training under the stewardship of Benavidez Sr ever since he was a toddler. A boxing fanatic, Benavidez has been waking up at 5 AM since his childhood days to do road work. Unfortunately, David’s parents’ divorce put a stop to his boxing training, even though it was for a brief period.

Fear is a great motivator!

As his brother moved out with his father to Hollywood to pursue his dreams of becoming a boxer, ‘Bandera Roja’ was left at home with his mother in Phoenix. Struggling to cope with the feeling of inadequacy fueled by his jealousy towards his brother, and not meeting up to his father’s expectations, he began to overeat.

An unhealthy diet involving Ramen Noodles, ores, Cheetos, cakes, and Mountain Dew attempted to fill the void in his life. The result: he ballooned up to 260 pounds at the age of 12. But a phone call to his dad at the age of 13, changed his fortunes. He wanted to move back in with his father and return to what he loved the most – boxing! His request was accepted.

Arriving at the Wildcard boxing gym, David was put on a strict diet of fish, chicken, and salad by his father to lose his weight apart from his usual boxing training. To further toughen him up, David’s father even made him spar with bigger guys, and seasoned professionals with stellar boxing records like Peter Quillin and Gennady Golovkin at the age of just fifteen, after Jose Benavidez Sr returned to Phoenix and opened up his own boxing gym. Senior’s strict training regimen helped create a Benavidez with a ripped physique and scary knockout power, a far cry from his former depressed state with no self-esteem. He managed to catch up to his brother who was by then a well-known professional boxer.

Fast-forward to 11 years since he turned professional in 2013 at the age of sixteen, the ‘Mexican Monster’ is in his full glory, lauded by the likes of heavyweight champions like Mike Tyson. His father continues to be by his side, motivating him every day in the boxing gym.

With an undefeated boxing record, and 24 knockout victories under his belt, is there anyone who can stop this juggernaut? Well, with the boxer, still in his prime years, he is only just beginning to taste success. What do you think of David Benavidez’s ascent in the gritty world of boxing under the guidance of his father? Let us know in the comment section below.