David Benavidez has admitted he isn’t ready to face a reigning world champion.
The 28-year-old from Phoenix, Arizona has had a positive start to his campaign at light heavyweight, where he currently holds the WBC ‘interim’ title at 175lbs following his move up from super middleweight last year.
‘The Monster’ became a two-time WBC super middleweight during his tenure at 168lbs, defeating the likes of Ronald Gavril and Anthony Dirrell during his reign. He stepped up to face Oleksandr Gvozdyk last June, outpointing the experienced Ukrainian to capture the WBC ‘Interim’ crown.
Benavidez returned to the ring on February 1 against David Morrell, defeating the previously undefeated Cuban to extend his unbeaten record to 30-0. The 28-year-old survived an eleventh round knockdown to outpoint Morrell over 12 competitive rounds, capturing the WBA ‘Regular’ light heavyweight strap in the process.
With his next steps yet to be confirmed, Benavidez has reportedly been weighing up an opportunity to move to cruiserweight in the near future. However, the 28-year-old American has admitted he would not be willing to face former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, who has teased a move back down to 200lbs, as he claims he is not ready for a challenge of that magnitude.
Speaking to Fight Hype, Benavidez gave an honest outlook on the prospect of facing the reigning unified heavyweight champion.
“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 Ukrainian superstar recently secured his place in heavyweight folklore with a second victory over Tyson Fury to retain his unified WBC, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles. The 38-year-old became the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the ‘four belt era’ last May before being stripped of his IBF crown ahead of his rematch against ‘The Gypsy King’ last December.
