David Benavidez has emerged as one of the biggest rising stars in boxing over the last few years.
At just 28-years-old, ‘The Monster’ has won the WBC super-middleweight title on two separate occasions and remains unbeaten in all thirty of his professional contests.
Benavidez was recently declared as the WBC light-heavyweight champion, after former champion Dmitry Bivol opted to vacate the title to pursue a third encounter with rival Artur Beterbiev.
‘The Monster’ had held the WBC ‘Interim’ title at 175lbs, which he won last year after defeating Ukraine’s Oleksandr Gvozdyk in his debut at light-heavyweight. His most recent outing came against David Morrell Jr, who he defeated via unanimous decision in February.
Despite proving to be one of the sport’s most exciting and feared stars in recent years, Benavidez has admitted there is just one world champion that would get the better of him.
Speaking to Fight Hype, the 28-year-old played down his chances against unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, who had originally planned a move down to cruiserweight after beating Tyson Fury, and was linked to a potential showdown against Benavidez.
“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.
Benavidez is also said to be considering a potential move up to 200lbs, where he could go up against unified WBA and WBO champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez. However, ‘The Monster’ is expected to make the first defence of his WBC crown at some point during the summer, with newly-crowned WBO ‘Interim’ light-heavyweight champion Callum Smith said to be the front-runner to face him.
