David Benavidez and his team could be tempted into an early jump up to heavyweight to challenge Oleksandr Usyk much sooner than anticipated.
Benavidez (32-0, 26 KOs) saw his name flung into the conversation to fight Usyk by Turki Alalshikh via The Ring Magazine shortly after his WBA and WBO title success, where he stopped Gilberto Ramirez inside six rounds to become a three-weight world champion at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas this past Saturday.
“I woke up and I’m seeing that everywhere. They’re making a big deal of it,” Benavidez’s trainer and father, Jose Benavidez Snr, said in an interview with BoxingScene. “Anything’s possible. I’ll sit with David and we’ll discuss it.”
Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs) will first have to take on boxing novice and kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven at the Pyramids of Giza on May 23. A fight that hasn’t followed the Ukrainian’s usual route of challenging the very best in the sport.
“Usyk is really good, but with the age and him fighting older fighters, that’s a fight we can make,” Benavidez Snr added. “David thought it would be down the road a way, but now that they mention it, that would be crazy and out of this world.”
Various routes have opened up for Benavidez in the short time since his impressive sixth round knockout performance on his cruiserweight debut. The 29-year-old American is also the WBC light heavyweight champion, with Dmitry Bivol’s name hovering close to Benavidez’s name in the headlines as well. While at his new weight class, Jai Opetaia has been the most talked about combatant for the new unified champion.
