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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Promoter Bob Arum says neither Tyson Fury nor Oleksandr Usyk were all that concerned with what the other is set to make for their undisputed heavyweight championship.
Ukraine’s Usyk, the WBO, WBA, IBF, IBO champion, and England’s Fury, the WBC titlist, announced last month that they had finally signed a contract to face each other in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, possibly in late December or in January.
Fury has a high-profile fight with former UFC champion Francis Ngannou this Saturday, also in Riyadh, that he must overcome first; Fury is the prohibitive favorite in the match-up as it is Ngannou’s boxing debut.
Negotiations between Fury and Usyk have often been stalled for the past year, with a crisis point occurring in late March, when both sides seemed prepared to walk away. Talks began again in May but went nowhere, with Fury eventually signing on to fight Ngannou and Usyk choosing to defend his titles against mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois, whom he wound up stopping in nine rounds in August.
Arum, whose Top Rank acts as Fury’s American promoter, said the most recent round of talks went swimmingly after Turki Alalshikh, the Chairman of The General Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia, got involved. Unlike traditional deals, in which the fighters split proceeds from the financial “pot,” this one saw Alalshikh negotiate a guaranteed payday with each fighter individually.
“There’s no split,” Arum said of Usyk-Fury in an interview with FightHubTV. “Prince Turki for the sovereign fund negotiated a purse for Usyk and he negotiated a purse for Fury. They’re not stupid. They weren’t looking, ‘Hey, what’s the other guy getting?’ Because they don’t care. As long as they got the number they were looking for they were happy and that’s the way it should be.”
Arum cautioned that Fury vs. Usyk may not happen in December, much less on Dec. 23, if Fury happens to incur an injury from Ngannou.
“What if Tyson gets cut against Ngannou?” Arum said. “What if he hurts his hand? That’s in the hand of God. Assuming if he gets through the fight with no damage, it’ll happen sooner or later, I don’t know if necessarily December 23 is the date.”
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.
