By Keith Idec

David Benavidez gets the sense Ronald Gavril isn’t quite taking him seriously.

Benavidez is just 20 years old, still three months away from his 21st birthday. Gavril, according to Benavidez, views him as “a little kid,” not a dangerous man more than capable of knocking him senseless Friday night in Las Vegas.

If Phoenix’s Benavidez (18-0, 17 KOs) defeats Romania’s Gavril (18-1, 14 KOs) to win the vacant WBC super middleweight title, he’ll become boxing’s youngest active world champion. That distinction currently belongs to 22-year-old Kosei Tanaka (9-0, 5 KOs), a Japanese fighter who owns the WBO light flyweight title.

The 31-year-old Gavril, meanwhile, has won seven straight fights since losing an eight-round unanimous decision to Elvin Ayala (29-9-1, 13 KOs) in March 2015.

“I think he’s a very good [fighter],” Benavidez told BoxingScene.com before their weigh-in Thursday. “He’s more of a brawler. He has a pretty good hit. You know, he’s 18-1 and has 14 knockouts, so he has power behind his hands. But I feel like I’ve seen his style one too many times, just coming forward, brawling. And then I think he doesn’t respect me because he thinks I’m a little kid still, which is fine. I will take that to my advantage. I’m gonna take his overconfidence and make it my advantage.”

Showtime will televise Benavidez-Gavril as the main event of a “ShoBox: The New Generation” telecast from The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino (10:05 p.m. ET/PT).

The heavy-handed Benavidez stopped Mexican veteran Rogelio Medina (38-8, 32 KOs) in the eighth round of his last fight, May 20 in Laredo, Texas.

When England’s Callum Smith (22-0, 17 KOs) withdrew from his WBC title fight against Anthony Dirrell (30-1-1, 24 KOs), the 168-pound championship match the WBC ordered when Badou Jack gave up the title, the fourth-ranked Benavidez replaced Smith, who’s ranked No. 1 by the WBC. The second-ranked Dirrell later said he had an unspecified injury and withdrew from the fight, which led to the sixth-ranked Gavril replacing him.

“I hope he’s ready because I’m extremely ready,” Benavidez said. “If he wants to duke it out in the middle of the ring, we could do that. If he wants to run from me, then I’m gonna catch him like a mouse. That don’t mean nothing to me. I’m ready for anything.”

Like Medina and other opponents, Benavidez believes Gavril’s opinion of him will change once Gavril feels his power.

“Once they feel my power and they find out I know what I’m doing, then it changes in there for them,” Benavidez said. “But I’m ready for everything. I’ve felt power before. I know what it is to feel power. I’m not gonna go in there and just try to knock the dude out. Of course I’m gonna respect him a little bit, enough to be cautious of what his punches are. But at the end of the day, I will dissect him and I will take him out.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.