David Benavidez wants the winner of the upcoming rematch between undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol – he’s in position with two of the sanctioning bodies to challenge whomever triumphs in Beterbiev-Bivol 2.
Benavidez is “pretty confident” that he’ll land that fight, a contrast with his time at super middleweight waiting for a shot he’d earned at Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. The only potential sticking point – that what happens in Beterbiev-Bivol 2 could lead first to a Bivol-Beterbiev 3.
“The only thing I’m thinking about is that if Bivol wins this fight, will they have to do a rubber match?” less than 48 hours after his win against David Morrell in a pay-per-view main event. “I’m just thinking, who am I to say that they can’t fight another fight because they fought two great fights? If something like that would happen, I think I wouldn’t fight until they get that done with, and then I would move into that fight after they have a trilogy.”
Benavidez walked back that self-sidelining a bit when Helwani brought up just how long a delay that could be. But his prediction for February 22 is that the championship at 175lbs will change hands.
“I would pick Bivol because Bivol beat Canelo, so basically when I beat Bivol that would make my case that I’m better than Canelo,” Benavidez said. “I know Dmitry Bivol really well. I sparred him a lot. He’s a great fighter, and we’ve had a lot of great sparring sessions.”
Two fights into his time at light heavyweight, Benavidez is optimistic about what the future will bring.
“The big thing is we got a lot of big things coming up,” he said. “I think now I proved to everybody what level I’m on. I think I proved to everybody how much heart I have. So me against anybody. I’ll bet the house on me against anybody. I’m just looking forward to keep making history.”
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter and . He is the co-host of the . David’s book, “,” is available on Amazon.