David Benavidez has soared the pound-for-pound rankings with his lone outing of 2026, but there is one man who believes that he could put an end to the hype surrounding ‘The Mexican Monster’ and hand him a first career defeat.
Benavidez was elevated to WBC light-heavyweight champion last year and knocked out Anthony Yarde in his singular defence of the belt before moving up to cruiserweight, where he faced unified WBA and WBO titleholder Gilberto Ramirez on his debut at the weight.
In a sensational and dominant display, Benavidez overcame a 25lb jump up in weight and dominated ‘Zurdo’ from the first round in a Performance of the Year candidate to become a three-division world champion.
Despite the recent success of Benavidez, Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight world champion Jai Opetaia told Boxing King Media that, should he defeat Noel Mikaelian on Saturday, he will then target Benavidez’s recently-claimed belts.
“I don’t even chase names. I say this all of the time, whether I fight Benavidez or not, I want to become undisputed, whether he takes the fight or he doesn’t and relinquishes the belt, so be it, I don’t care. Give me the belts. I want to fight for belts.
“Obviously I want to fight him, he is a great fighter, I respect him and I actually like Benavidez. I think that he is a good dude, he carries himself well, he was respectful when I met him that first time and I like [the story of] him and his old man coming from nothing. I see it, I have lived it, there is that mutual respect.
“You don’t fake it to get to this f***ing point of our careers, we have both worked very, very hard to get here and we have both fought some good fighters and we are both world champions and stuff like that.
“There is no disrespect, but the best should fight the best. He knows it, I know it.”
Opetaia-Mikaelian is the co-main event of this Saturday’s Ryan Garcia vs. Conor Benn card, which takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
