David Benavidez chats it up with The Ring to talk about his attempts to make some big fights and his willingness to move up in weight to make it happen. Here, Benavidez says he’s targeting fights against Jai Opetaia, Dmitry Bivol, Artur Beterbiev, Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury as he looks to cement his legacy in the sport. Here’s some of what he had to say below.
Benavidez on his attempts to fight Bivol
“We been trying to make that fight with Bivol for a long, long time. It looks like he’s not willing to take any of these big fights. He
still hasn’t fought since he fought Artur Beterbiev. So, I don’t know what’s going on with Bivol, what his plans are, but I have my intentions set on this cruiserweight division. There’s a lot of great fights here…I want the fight versus me and Jai Opetaia, Cinco de Mayo weekend in T-Mobile Arena.”
On if he could potentially move up to heavyweight
“The heavyweight division is a division I definitely got my eye on, too. We got two great fights at cruiserweight before we get up there first. We got Jai Opetaia, then I think Beterbiev is going to come up to cruiserweight. And then after that I definitely want to get in a fight with Usyk and I seen Gypsy King mention my name. So, right now I’m only here to test myself and to try to be great. So if we can get in a fight with Usyk and Tyson Fury, that’s something I’m willing to do.”
On the potential to fight Beterbiev at cruiserweight
“Beterbiev has definitely reached out to our team and he’s been actively trying to make that fight. So, we’re going to give him exactly what he wants. I respect Beterbiev. He’s like 45-years-old, so the fact that he’s calling me out, I got a lot of respect for him.
“That’s a great fight for the public. Two of the most violent fights you could possibly make happen, so I’m all for it.”
On the toughest fight for him between Bivol, Beterbiev, and Opetaia
“I’m being 100% honest with you guys. The hardest challenge out of any of those fighters is Bivol. Bivol is all around a great fighter. He has great movement, he has great fundamentals, great defense. So, that in my opinion would be the hardest fight out of all of them but they’re all good fights.”
