David Benavidez is preparing for what could be the toughest fight of his career, going up against the hard-hitting 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15th in Las Vegas, live on Prime Video.
A Different Beast at Light Heavyweight
Trainer Jose Benavidez Sr. acknowledges that his son, David Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs) has got a difficult fight on his hands going up against Gvozdyk (20-1, 16 KOs) in a WBC 175-lb title eliminator.
This is Benavidez’s first fight at light heavyweight and he looked smaller than Gvozdyk during the kickoff press conference on Saturday.
Benavidez has always gotten over by being bigger than his opponents and fighting largely lesser opposition. It’s going to be interesting to see if he can hang with a fighter his own size, better power, and superior technical skills.
The winner of the Benavidez-Gvozdyk fight could fight for the undisputed light heavyweight championship after champions Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol square off.
Beterbiev is injured right now, and he’ll likely be out until later this year. So if Benavidez is victorious against Gvozdyk, he’ll have to wait until 2025 before he gets a chance to fight for the four belts at 175 against the last man standing.
Gvozdyk – A Dangerous Dance Partner
“This is a tough fight. We’re fighting a guy with only one loss [Oleksandr Gvozdyk], and he was an Olympian and ex-champion,” said Jose Benavidez Sr. to Fight Hub TV about his son, David Benavidez’s fight against former WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15th in Las Vegas.
I wouldn’t surprised if Benavidez loses to Gvozdyk because he’s always been a weight bully during his career, but he won’t have that going for him in this fight. Gvozdyk is a bigger and stronger puncher. He took the best shots from Adonis Stevenson and beat him.
Gvozdyk’s only loss on his record is to Beterbiev. He was winning that fight until he was stopped. If Benavidez gets clipped by Gvozdyk, he could be in trouble.
“The only time he lost was against [Artur] Beterbiev, and Beterbiev is a monster. Oleksandr is coming with everything because if he can beat David Benavidez, he can go to the next level and he’ll probably fight for a world title,” said Jose Sr.
“We can’t let that happen, and I think David is going to stop him and we got to look impressive in order to get to the bigger fights and hopefully get a fight between Beterbiev and Bivol, one of them,” said Jose Sr.
If Benavidez tries to set up shop in front of Gvozdyk, using his volume punching, he’s going to walk into a big shot. This isn’t David Lemieuz or an old pumped junior middleweight Demetrius Andrade that Benavidez is fighting.
Bivol Opportunity?
“We have a fight already scheduled. We have a fight on June 15th. It’ll be about the promoters to come and tell us that,” said Benavidez Sr. about whether his son, David, will step in to face WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol on June 1st now that Beterbiev has suffered a knee injury and can no longer fight on that card.
There’s very little chance Benavidez will step to face Bivol on June 1st. They already have the replacement opponent picked out for Bivol to defend his WBA title against, a guy named Malik Zinad, who is a bottom fringe-level contender.
“We’re ready for whatever. We want those opportunities. We have Oleksandr Gvozdyk on the 15th, and I haven’t heard anything. We’re ready for whatever and that would be for a world title,” said Benavidez Sr.