David Benavidez has had his say on a potential showdown with former undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.
Best known as ‘The Monster’, Benavidez has had an impressive professional career to date, capturing the WBC super middleweight title on two occasions before making the move up to light heavyweight last year.
The 28-year-old from Phoenix, Arizona stormed onto the 175lb scene with a comprehensive victory over Oleksandr Gvozdyk to capture the WBC ‘Interim’ world title. He made the first successful defence of his crown on February 1 in an entertaining showdown with David Morrell Jr, defeating the previously unbeaten Cuban via unanimous decision.
As he gears up for his next move, which could be a world title shot at 175lbs, ‘The Monster’ has weighed in on the rumours that he is targeting a fight against heavyweight superstar Oleksandr Usyk who currently holds the unified WBC, WBA and WBO titles.
In an interview with FightHype, Benavidez admitted that despite speculation he is not actually keen on clashing with Usyk, after it was revealed that the Ukrainian icon could drop back down to cruiserweight in the near future.
“To be honest with you I have to deal with these monsters in this weight class first.
Usyk? I don’t think I have enough experience to go up against Usyk. I’m just being 100% honest. Like you say never say never, maybe in the future, maybe in 5 or 6 years but by then Usyk will be 40 something or even older. I have tremendous respect for Usyk and he’s the greatest of all time.”
‘The Monster’ was recently named the mandatory challenger to newly crowned undisputed light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol, who dethroned countryman Artur Beterbiev in their incredible rematch on February 22.
Should Bivol agree to a trilogy fight with Beterbiev, there is a possibility that the WBC could actually strip the 34-year-old of his crown, which would allow Benavidez the opportunity of becoming a two-weight world champion.
