David Benavidez says a fight with Oleksandr Usyk could come one day, but right now he is focused on the next step in his own climb. The unbeaten fighter, 31-0 with 25 knockouts, is gearing up to meet Gilberto Ramirez for the WBA and WBO cruiserweight world titles at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas during Cinco de Mayo weekend.
Benavidez did not sound interested in waiting around for anyone else to shape his path. He said he wants to clear out light heavyweight before settling in at cruiserweight and only later think about heavyweight, adding, “I don’t want to wait for nobody no more. If that means jumping up weight classes, that’s exactly what I’m doing.” He also said, “I just want to show everybody I’m the best.”
The timing gives his comments extra weight. Usyk, 24-0 with 15 knockouts, sits at the top of the heavyweight division, which makes even a future meeting sound like a long shot for now. Benavidez has also kept his name in the conversation around Canelo Alvarez, repeatedly calling him out into 2025 and 2026 after saying Canelo avoided him when both were at super middleweight.
That is where the friction in Benavidez’s rise begins to show. He is moving up in weight, but the step from dominant pressure fighter to proven force at cruiserweight and beyond is not automatic. Oleksandr Gvozdyk, who shared work with him, said Benavidez should not lean on raw power as the divisions get bigger. “When I compare sparring with Gilberto and fighting Benavidez, it was harder in there against Benavidez,” Gvozdyk said, adding, “It doesn’t really matter how much power Benavidez carries up when he moves up in weight, because he is not really winning because of his power…Benavidez has been winning his fights not because of his power. It’s because of his skills, because of his defense and because of his relentless pressure. This is how he wins his fights. Power is in the last place.”
Benavidez’s next fight will answer the immediate question, not the grand one. If he gets past Ramirez, the bigger picture becomes harder to ignore: a champion trying to build a route through two more weight classes without letting anyone else decide the pace.
