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.
ProboxTV’s championship series is now on the ProBoxTV YouTube channel for $5/month.
Learn More
By Per Ake Persson
German middleweight Khoren Gevor vs. Matthew Macklin is off on April 16 in Birmingham. Gevor plans instead to fight the winner of Macklin vs tba. -We just didn´t get a good deal from Hatton Promotions, says Gevor´s manager Peter Schulze, and now the winner of Macklin vs tba have to fight Khoren inside 90 days.
There´s a lot more behind this than that. Gevor and Universum met in court a few days ago and the court ruled in favor of the boxer in accordance with the BGB (the Civil rights legislation) paragraph 627 - a paragraph that mandates that if there are no permanent work and no permanent salaries a contract can be denounced at any time. Universum´s Klaus Peter Kohl was quoted in Bild as saying this was an "absolutely wrong decision, a misjudgement". There´s probably more to come and without an inside look to Gevor´s contract it´s impossible to say what is right or wrong - but if there are no specific paragraphs in the contract to get around the BGB paragraph 627, then I´ve been told Gevor is likely to be a free man - and that this ruling may effect many more promoter/manager/boxer contracts than Khoren´s.
There are also some dreams / plans for Khoren Gevor to fight Gennadyi Golovkin, another "defector" from Universum (also a case where the contractual status is unclear) for the vacant WBA middleweight in Kazachstan in May. This plan include that Felix Sturm is stripped of the title or relinquish it.
WBC have crowned jr light Vitalij Tajbert - the previous holder of the interim title - undisputed superfeather champ. Tajbert still have legal problems to settle after an incident outside of a disco late last year in Stuttgart and it remains an open question when he can defend the title.
Cuban heavyweight Juan Carlos Gomez returns as previously reported to action on Arena´s show in Hamburg March 7 when he face Alex Mazikin. If all goes well Gomez will then headline Arena´s show in Schwerin April 9. This event is televised by EuroSport.
Roberto Santos defends the Spanish super middleweight title April 3 in Benidorm against Blas Miguel Martinez. On the undercard Norwegian heavyweight giant Arild "the Hulk" Haugen will have his third profight.
Joey Abell vs Al Cole in Kampala, Uganda, sometime in May 2010 for a WBFed heavyweight title? Yes, that is at the least the plan and is what became of the grand plans to have WBFed champ Francois Botha defend the title against Evander Holyfield that was first set for January 16. Cole beat Abell in Sweden in 08 in a really good fight over six two minute rounds. The rematch is billed as "the African Meltdown" referring to the nicknames "Minnesota Ice" Abell vs "Ice" Collins.
