David Benavidez has teased making the move to yet another new weight class.
The 28-year-old from Phoenix currently reigns as the WBC light-heavyweight champion after he was elevated from interim champion back in April.
Benavidez was originally made the mandatory challenger to Russian great Dmitry Bivol, but the former undisputed champion at 175lbs made the decision to vacate the belt to pursue a trilogy clash with Artur Beterbiev.
‘The Mexican Monster’ is set to make the first defence of his WBC title later this year as he gears up to face Britain’s Anthony Yarde in an intriguing clash at the ANB Arena in Riyadh on Saturday November 22.
He appears to also have his sights on even bigger match-ups though, as speaking on the Inside The Ring, Benavidez expressed an interest in a potential showdown with unified WBA and WBO world cruiserweight champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez in the near future.
“To be honest, let Terence Crawford live. That’s his weight class. I lost interest in 168 a long, long time ago. And I know that we could get offered a lot of money to go down but I’m more comfortable at 175. I’m chasing Beterbiev, Bivol, Zurdo Ramirez at cruiserweight. So, I’ve been at 168 but I have no interest in going back down.”
Benavidez had previously revealed that a fight between himself and ‘Zurdo’ was close to being made before he was elevated to WBC Champion. On taking the biggest challenges and continuing to move up in weight, he said:
“I’m taking it one step at a time. The good thing is we have a lot of fights on the table, and you guys know I’m gonna take every single one of them. I’m not gonna run from anything. This is my destiny. This is what boxing is about … It’s about giving the fans the fights they deserve. They’re paying the money, so let’s go to war.”
Ramirez added the WBA cruiserweight belt to his collection last November when he outclassed Chris Billam-Smith in Riyadh, defeating the Brit via unanimous decision.
‘Zurdo’ then returned to the ring in June on the undercard of Jake Paul vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, defeating Cuba’s two-time world cruiserweight champion Yuniel Durticos at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
