David Benavidez has no shortage of HUGE fights on his radar. In an exclusive interview with BoxingScene, Jose Benavidez Sr. makes it clear that David still wants the biggest names at 175lbs including Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev. Benavidez has previously said those are two fights he wants to make as he pursues more titles and major challenges. But there’s another name that could make things very interesting: Andy Ruiz Jr. Jose discusses the possibility of an all-Mexican showdown between Benavidez and the former heavyweight champion, along with David’s plans across multiple divisions. And with a potential Jai Opetaia showdown also building after the pair came face-to-face following Opetaia’s latest victory, Benavidez has some massive options ahead.
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By Luke Furman
WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (28-1, 23 KOs) is paying zero attention to the critics.
Stevenson, 39 years old, is placing all of his focus on the upcoming rematch with Polish contender against Andrzej Fonfara, which takes place in Canada on June 3.
Stevenson and Fonfara exchanged knockdowns in a tough fight in 2014, with Stevenson winning a twelve round unanimous decision at the Bell Centre in Montreal
Since capturing the title from Chad Dawson in June of 2013, Stevenson has been hammered with criticism over his lack of elite competition.
"I'm the king of the division. When you're the king, you will get criticized. People talk. They can talk for as long as they want, I'm still the champion. I don't mind. It's been four years I am champion. They can say what they want. For real, I don't care for these people here," Stevenson told La Presse.
"For me, I want to unify the titles, which means more to me than breaking the defense record of Lucian Bute. It's major, it's global and it's where [my adviser]Al Haymon is heading. If it's Kovalev, then we'd have the chance to take it over here [to Canada]. If it's Andre Ward, he will be a lot more difficult to bring over, so I would have to go to Las Vegas or California."
According to Stevenson's promoter Yvon Michel, Stevenson could have very well face Sergey Kovalev in a unification when HBO was building that fight. But the Canadian star was offered a lot of money to jump over to Showtime for a unification with Bernard Hopkins, who at the time was also a champion with two belts at 175. But in a move that nobody expected, Hopkins jumped from Showtime to HBO to finalize a unification with Kovalev.
"Bernard Hopkins is the main reason why Adonis is on Showtime, not on HBO. We had a meeting with Richard Schaefer [then promoter of Hopkins]. Hopkins said: 'If Adonis comes on Showtime, we're doing a whole unification.' Everyone got a hug and we decided to go in that direction. Then there was an internal fight between Schaefer and Hopkins, and Hopkins went on HBO to fight against Kovalev," Michel explained.
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.
