David Benavidez has confirmed plans to move up to the heavyweight division at some point in his career, as he seeks to prove himself to be boxing’s pound-for-pound king.
When quizzed on how Benavidez would fare against rival Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury dismissed one man’s chances in the fight.
A former super-middleweight world champion, Benavidez has gone on to capture world honours at both light-heavyweight and cruiserweight, the latter being a unified world title win in a Performance of the Year candidate against Gilberto Ramirez back in May.
Next month, Benavidez challenges for Michal Cieslak’s WBC cruiserweight title as he homes in one the undisputed cruiserweight crown, but ‘The Mexican Monster’ has also recently been vocal in his desire to later move into the heavyweight division.
“I am just going to do my thing at cruiserweight and build myself up until I think that I am ready to go to heavyweight. I think that, once I get my body tuned to fighting at heavyweight, there is no going back.”
At heavyweight, a host of major fights could await the emerging superstar, with the likes of Fury, Oleksandr Usyk and Joshua still campaigning in the division. Although, when Fury shared his thoughts on a potential bout between ‘AJ’ and Benavidez, he told FurociTV that Benavidez would score a dominant win.
“Never ever ever think that Joshua is a tougher fight than David Benavidez. Benavidez stops Joshua in about three rounds.”
In a surprising turn of events it now looks like Benavidez could face Usyk at cruiserweight next year, after the Ukrainian expressed his desire to make the fight at 200lbs.
As for Fury, he faces Joshua in five weeks’ time at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, with the British heavyweight icons each keen to claim the bragging rights, as much as the vacant WBA (Super) world title that is also on the line.
