LAS VEGAS – Jose Uzcategui hasn’t given up on the possibility of finally fighting David Benavidez.

They were supposed to headline a “Showtime Championship Boxing” card 13 months ago in Benavidez’s hometown of Phoenix, but Uzcategui tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug and was replaced on barely two weeks’ notice by Kyrone Davis. The unbeaten Benavidez and Uzcategui were tentatively scheduled to box again next month, but Benavidez instead took a higher-profile fight with rival Caleb Plant, who defeated Uzcategui to win the IBF super middleweight title in January 2019.

If Uzcategui (32-4, 27 KOs) can get past unbeaten Russian contender Vladimir Shishkin (13-0, 8 KOs) in their IBF elimination match Saturday night at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, the Venezuelan veteran believes that victory will put him in position to face the Benavidez-Plant winner later in 2023.

“Those are the fights I want,” Uzcategui told krikya360.com through a translator Thursday after a press conference at The Cosmopolitan. “I want to fight Benavidez and I want to fight Plant. I’m hoping for the best. We’ll have to see what happens.”

Uzcategui predicted Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) will stop Plant (22-1, 13 KOs) in their fight for Benavidez’s WBC interim championship. Neither a date nor a venue have been announced, but Benavidez and Plant have publicly acknowledged that they agreed to contractual terms to fight next.

“I think that Benavidez will win the fight by knockout,” Uzcategui said. “But whether Caleb wins or loses, I wanna fight him again. It’s personal.”

Plant, who was knocked out by Canelo Alvarez in the 11th round of their title unification fight 13 months ago, responded by knocking former WBC champ Anthony Dirrell unconscious in the ninth round October 15 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Plant’s picture-perfect, counter left hook drilled Dirrell (34-3-2, 25 KOs) and sent him flat on his back, unable to continue.

“I was surprised because he’s a fighter that doesn’t usually have that kind of snap, the punching power,” Uzcategui said. “But Dirrell’s age [38] came to the surface and that was part of the situation.”

Plant dropped Uzcategui twice, once in the second round and again in the fourth round, on his way to a 12-round, unanimous-decision victory nearly four years ago at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Plant, a native of Ashland City, Tennessee, beat Uzcategui by scores of 116-110, 116-110 and 115-111.

As for his fight with Shishkin, Uzcategui expects experience to be one of the deciding factors in a 12-round bout Showtime will televise as its co-feature before undefeated lightweights Frank Martin (16-0, 12 KOs) and Michel Rivera (24-0, 14 KOs) meet in the 12-round main event (10 p.m. ET; 7 p.m. PT).

“The thing is the experience that I have is gonna help me to do well,” Uzcategui said. “The experience is the biggest advantage I have in this fight.”

Tijuana’s Uzcategui, 31, is the IBF’s seventh-rated super middleweight contender, two spots atop the ninth-rated Shishkin, who is also 31. The winner will become the IBF’s second-ranked challenger for one of Alvarez’s four 168-pound championships.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.