By Ryan Burton
Moments after David Benavidez made history by becoming the youngest super middleweight champion ever, he became a marked man. Benavidez (19-0) defeated Ronald Gavril (18-2) via split decision on September 8th and unbeaten super middleweight prospect Caleb Plant immediately went up to him and called him out.
The 20-year-old Benavidez took the confrontation in stride and feels that is par for the course when you are a world champion.
"Everybody wants to fight me. I got the WBC title. Caleb Plant has mentioned my name a lot and I wouldn't mind fighting him. He is a great fighter and I want to give the great fighters opportunities. If I am not the one holding this belt then another great fighter should. Right now I am working hard to keep this belt as long as I can," Benavidez explained.
The Phoenix Ariz. native has spent a lot of time training in Big Bear, Calif. alongside the likes of WBC/WBA/IBF/IBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and IBF cruiserweight champion Murat Gassiev.
Benavidez said that the training sessions have been invaluable and really helped him take his career to the next level.
"I learned a lot from Golovkin, there are so many workouts that he does that I am not going to say because those are the secrets. He works a lot on a lot of different things. He is a great champion and it is a great atmosphere up there around all those great fighters, especially being around a great champion like that you just learn so much and get really motivated," said Benavidez.
Benavidez is supporting Golovkin as he heads to a potential rematch with Canelo Alvarez next May. They fought to a twelve round split draw last month at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
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