Roy Jones Jr is the only fighter in boxing history to have been a super-middleweight and heavyweight world champion, but David Benavidez is eyeing up the opportunity to do the same. Now, Jones has offered his thoughts on whether ‘The Mexican Monster’ could emulate his achievement.
Jones outpointed John Ruiz to capture the WBA heavyweight title in 2003, a decade after his decision win against Bernard Hopkins for the IBF middleweight world title and eight-and-a-half years after he trumped James Toney for the IBF super-middleweight marble.
Whilst Toney also defeated Ruiz for the heavyweight crown in 2005 to join Jones in as a second 168lb and heavyweight ruler, his triumph was later ruled as a no-contest due to a failed drugs test.
Benavidez has now made his way from super-middleweight to cruiserweight and is homing in on a shot at the undisputed 200lb title, before a potential move into heavyweight scene, where he believes he will ultimately remain.
Speaking on the Hall of Game podcast, Jones declared that Benavidez’s mooted showdown with Jai Opetaia will prove whether he is capable of making the move up to heavyweight, due to the Aussie’s punching power.
“The reason that I say, ‘let’s hold up with that one’ is because, if he is about to fight Opetaia, that is going to be a very tough fight for David. So I want to see how David fares in that fight first.
“I think that he probably wins the fight, but I want to see how he fares in that fight because the one thing that Daniel Dubois has is punching power.
“He [Dubois] will go down, but he can put you down too. So let’s see how David deals with this punching power from Opetaia first, if he deals with that well, then that would be a great fight to see because I’d like to see if he can take Dubois’ punch and can Dubois take his punch?
“So, that would be a great fight to see, once he passes the test in front of him right now.”
First, Benavidez is set to collide with reigning WBC champion Michael Cieslak in a bid to add a third cruiserweight world title to his collection, on Saturday, December 5.
