David Benavidez says he would be open to a fight against Oleksandr Usyk but would rather wait “Five or six years” Before confronting him. He believes he needs “more experience” before facing heavyweight champion Usyk (23-0, 12 KOs). Oleksandr won't wait for Benavidez. If he lacked the self-confidence to fight him now, this fight wouldn't happen.
Usyk wait: 5-6 years
Benavidez says he might still take the fight if it was offered to him. He admits it will be one of the toughest matches of his career, and that's an understatement.
Usyk is highly skilled and will benefit from Benavidez's habit of leaving himself open to charges due to the volume of shots. The “Mexican-Ecuadorian-American Monster” Benavidez didn’t have to change his fighting style because he was fighting smaller guys while campaigning at 168 years old for the first 10 years of his career.
In his recent debut at 175, he landed a lot of hard shots against Oleksandr Gvozdyk as he tried to overwhelm him with size, and his face looked like it had been run over by a tractor trailer by the end of the 12-round contest. .
If Benavidez moves up to heavyweight or cruiserweight to face Usyk, he won't be able to use The Voice against him without embarrassment. This method only works against small or weak fighters.
In 39 days, Benavidez will face WBA regular champion David Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) on February 22 on PPB on Prime Video PPV at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
This is a fight that will show the type of character Benavidez has in the 175-pound division. If he can't beat Morell, he may have to go back to 168 if he can because it will get worse for him against other killers at 175.
“I'm going to hurt David Morrell.”
“Anyone watching this fight is going to have a good time watching this. I'm coming in 100%,” David Benavidez said. Fighthypetalks about his February 22 bout against WBA light heavyweight champion David Morrell in Las Vegas.
“I've been training for almost four and a half months. I'm not going to leave any stone unturned, and I'm very excited about this fight. Not just to go out there for the victory, but to get the knockout. I'm going to go out there and I'm going to hurt David Morrell.”
“I'll make him eat all his words, and when I hit him and take his belt out, he'll know who's the best in the world,” Benavidez said.
With Morell's strength in both hands, he has an excellent chance of knocking out Benavidez in this fight if he fights the way he has been doing. Muriel hits too hard and will knock Benavidez out just like he did to Senna Agbeko and Yamaguchi Falcao. These guys had excellent chins in their fight with Morel, but he took them down quickly.
“I don’t think I have enough experience to fight Usyk,” Benavidez said when asked if he would like to fight Oleksandr Usyk. “Never say nothing. Maybe in the future, but as of now, I'm just focusing on these guys. Maybe in five or six years, but by then, he'll probably be around 40,” Benavidez said of Usyk. 42 or 43 years old).”
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Usyk. He's the greatest of all time. If I had the opportunity to share the ring with him, I wouldn't say no, but this would probably be the hardest fight I've ever had in my entire life,” Benavidez said.
It seems weak on Benavidez's part to talk about needing more experience before fighting Usyk because he has a lot of professional experience going into this fight. Plus, he's almost ten years younger than him.