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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Conor McGregor’s longtime head coach, John Kavanagh, has ruled out the possibility of adding Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach to their team, as they prepare for a potential boxing match against five division champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.
There are ongoing discussions to finalize the fight, with McGregor already finalizing his portion of the deal with the UFC. The deal on the other end, with Mayweather, is still outstanding.
The fight is being targeted for a pay-per-view date in the fall and is likely to take place in Las Vegas.
In several interviews, Roach said that he was approached about the possibility of training McGregor for the Mayweather fight.
Roach said he was interested in that possibility.
But Kavanagh told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto that he sees no reason for Roach to be involved, because the highly regarded boxing trainer was not very successful when he prepared Manny Pacquiao for the 2015 mega-fight with Mayweather, who won a dominant twelve round unanimous decision.
“I was asked very early on, ‘Are you going to bring in Freddie Roach? He’s the greatest boxing trainer in the world right now,'” Kavanagh said. “OK. I’m an evidence-based guy. I don’t make decision based on emotions. Has Freddie trained somebody to fight Mayweather before? Yes. And a southpaw. A hard-hitting southpaw! And the plan didn’t work. I don’t see a point in doing the exact same thing. … He did come up short in his approach to Mayweather. So, we can’t follow the same formula.”
“We’re not going to spend 10 to 12 years doing something one way and then, because it’s a boxing fight, change everything for three months and beat the best defensive boxer of all time. No. We’ve got to come at this with an MMA striking strategy. Of course, hands only, but maybe there are things we can do from an MMA perspective, which, if people study boxing from the early 20th century, those things were a bigger part in the boxing game than they are today. We’re bringing an old-school boxing approach.”
That’s the kind of curious mindworm that is going to keep people locked into this fight, despite all logic telling us it’s going to be a complete blowout for Mayweather. It’s also why the PPV is going to sell in the millions.
