David Benavidez looks huge in a training video. He resembles a heavyweight and is shown with a spare tire around his waist in preparation for his June 15th fight.
Whatever Benavidez has been eating is stuck to his sides, giving him a shape like Tyson Fury’s body.
Benavidez’s Weight Gain
The 27-year-old Benavidez appears to be well over 200 lbs, perhaps as high as 215, and he’ll have to trim off a lot of weight to get to 175 for his next fight. It’s questionable whether Benavidez can get down to 175 without draining himself to the point of passing out.
Right now, Benavidez looks big enough to fight at heavyweight, which is arguably where he should be fighting, given his massive size. It would be tough for Benavidez to compete without his customary size advantage, but he wouldn’t have to beg for fights, at least.
Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs) is moving up to light heavyweight to take on Oleksandr Gvozdyk in a WBC 175-lb title eliminator in the chief support bout on the undercard of Gervonta Davis vs. Frank Martin in what is expected to be shown on Prime PPV.
If Benavidez defeats the 36-year-old Gvozdyk, who recently came out of a four-year retirement, he’ll be the mandatory to Artur Beterbiev’s WBC light heavyweight title, and would get the opportunity to battle for the undisputed championship.
Benavidez Eyes that Saudi Cash
IBF/WBC/WBO 175-lb champion Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) will fight WBA champ Dmitry Bivol next on June 1st in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Saudis will pay the two well. There’s no word whether the Saudis will be interested in staging a fight between the Bivol-Beterbiev winner and Benavidez in their country.
That’s what Benavidez is hoping for because he wouldn’t be moving up to 175 if he didn’t feel he had a chance to pick up some big dough from the Saudis by fighting the winner.
“It’s one of two things. ‘It’s a big fight; I want big money for it.’ The other way is like, ‘If I put a number out there that is astronomical, it ain’t going to happen anyway,’” said trainer Andre Rozier to Fighthype about Canelo Alvarez saying he wants $150-200 million for a fight against David Benavidez.
“I don’t know why Canelo doesn’t want to fight Benavidez other than the fact that he blows up to cruiserweight by fight time, and it’s going to be a tough fight, but he’s been in tough fights. I’d love to see it, but it’s up to Canelo. He’s the man.
“He’s making sure he controls the end of his career because he’s in the heyday of it, and he’s doing what he wants to do,” said Rozier about Canelo.
David Benavidez
hitting the heavy bag
a few days ago
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💥💥🥊🥊🥊 pic.twitter.com/WvkPFrCQP9— Danny (@dantheboxingman) March 25, 2024
