{"id":652272,"date":"2026-06-22T14:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T14:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/652272\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T14:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T14:17:08","slug":"david-benavidez-admits-hes-not-ready-right-now-to-face-one-champion-i-have-a-lot-of-respect-for-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/652272\/","title":{"rendered":"David Benavidez admits he’s ‘not ready right now’ to face one champion: “I have a lot of respect for him”"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Benavidez<\/a> has ruled out one fight in particular, despite Turki Alalshikh attempting to persuade him with a major opportunity.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old entered his first outing at 200lbs last month, becoming a three-weight world champion by dethroning Gilberto Ramirez for the WBO and WBA titles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But while his emphatic sixth-round finish<\/a> would suggest he is a natural cruiserweight, Benavidez clearly feels as though he could benefit from more experience at the weight.<\/p>\n

As such, it is hardly surprising that he successfully lobbied the WBC to install him as the mandatory challenger at 200lbs, hoping to secure a three-belt unification match with fellow champion Noel Mikaelian.<\/p>\n

The pair are now reportedly in deep negotiations to collide later this year, potentially leaving Zuffa champion Jai Opetaia without an opponent for his next outing.<\/p>\n

Whatever the case, though, it certainly appears that Benavidez is eager to remain at cruiserweight, rather than challenge unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite coming off a sub-par performance against Rico Verhoeven, who he stopped in round 11 last month<\/a>, Usyk is still widely considered the top dog of his division.<\/p>\n

Reluctant to take a gamble against the Ukrainian, Benavidez has told Luis Parra<\/a> that not even powerbroker Alalshikh can convince him otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Alalshikh] didn\u2019t talk to me directly, [but] he was talking to the people around me and said he wanted to make that fight. But honestly, I have a lot of respect for Usyk, and I\u2019m not ready for that right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he came down to cruiserweight then yeah, we could fight at cruiserweight. But I\u2019m not moving up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having been ordered to defend his WBC title against \u2018interim\u2019 champion Agit Kabayel, Usyk must now decide whether to pursue their mandated fight or vacate the belt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Benavidez has ruled out one fight in particular, despite Turki Alalshikh attempting to persuade him with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-652272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}