David Benavidez may be scheduled for a cruiserweight title fight on May 2 when he takes on titleholder Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez, but he still has his future set on returning to the light heavyweight division as he continues to seek out fights against Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev. Benavidez would explain that he was unable to immediately land a fight against Bivol, who wants to have a tune up fight first, so he instead thought this would be a good opportunity to snag another world title in the meanwhile to bolster his credentials. Check out some of what he had to say to Ring Magazine below.
Benavidez on fighting Zurdo at cruiserweight
“My main focus is to make history, become one of the greatest of all time and also put the biggest fights available. I’m coming back to light heavyweight, you know, I don’t want anybody to get it wrong that I’m staying at cruiserweight. Obviously if good opportunities present itself then we’ll stay here a little bit longer but I thought just because — Dmitry Bivol, he’s going to do a tune up fight — and for me just waiting around and defending my title and getting a regular fight, I thought it would be a good idea to go up and challenge Zurdo Ramirez for his two titles.”
On if he’d consider moving up again for heavyweight glory
“I hear a lot of people talking about heavyweight but these are big guys, this is an extremely different type of power. So I’m not thinking about heavyweight anytime soon. If I think about heavyweight it’s like probably five, six years. But what I really wanted to do is become unified champion at 175 and become a dominant champion at 175. I’ve been telling you guys I want to get Dmitry Bivol and then Artur Beterbiev, and I know those are two fights that all the world of boxing wants to see.”
On how he doesn’t fall into the same trap that Roy Jones Jr did in moving up to heavyweight and then coming back down only to see his body not responding the same
“The good thing about my fights is I only fight twice a year. So if I give a camp seven months to get ready, that’s more than enough time. I think what happened with Roy Jones Jr and Tarver is I think he said he tried to lose the weight too fast. But I don’t care, man. We’ll find a way. Where there’s a will there’s a way and I have my dreams and aspirations of what we’re going to do.”
On the confidence he has from his sparring experience
“I sparred a lot of people. To be honest with you, I’ve gotten the best of every fighter I’ve sparred whether it’s Bivol, whether it’s Golovkin, whether it’s Zurdo, whether it’s Kelly Pavlik, all these guys. That’s why I am who I am. That’s why I don’t like poeple sayig that ‘sparring sessions are sparring sessions.’ Our sparring sessions are not sparring sessions, they’re real fights. So if I can touch you in that sparring session I know for sure I can touch you in the real fight. So I’m just ready for whatever comes my way. This is the era of the Mexican Monster and I’m ready to showcase my skills to the world.”