David Benavidez’s father, Jose Benavidez Sr., says he wants undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev if they successfully defeat WBA ‘ordinary’ champion David Morrell in their January 25 fight.
Jose Sr. thinks Beterbiev will be a good fight for Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs). He would also like to have Dmitry Bivol for his son because it would give him the opportunity to defeat someone who beat Canelo Alvarez in 2022.
Jose Sr. is still bitter that Canelo chose not to fight Benavidez all these years and then recently mentioned a $200 million asking price to fight him. If Bivol loses the rematch with Beterbiev, it won’t be worth fighting him.
Artur Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) will be the guy Benavidez will fight if he defeats Bivol in their 2025 rematch. The second fight has not been confirmed yet, but it probably will be.
The worst nightmare for Benavidez would be Beterbiev losing the rematch with Bivol and then the two fighters meeting in a trilogy. Benavidez will have to wait for the third fight to happen between those guys before he gets a crack at the belts.
“David’s next fight is David Morrell. Everyone is super excited about it. We’ve been trying to make that fight for three years, but I believe David Morrell needed a little more experience to show the world that he deserves this fight,” Jose Benavidez Sr. said. Probox TV about David Benavidez fighting Cuban David Morrell next on January 25th.
It’s clear that Team Benavidez hasn’t been trying too hard to make the fight with Morrell for the past three years because they’ve been the ones ignoring him. If they wanted the fight with Morrell, it would have happened a long time ago.
They waited until now, after Morrell’s unimpressive performance against Radivoje Kalajdzic on August 3rd at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, before deciding they wanted to fight him.
“David called him and said, ‘Hey, I want to start this fight. Let’s make it happen.’ It was made immediately. I’m very excited to fight a young talent, a strong fighter, and I think it’s going to be a tough fight,” Jose Sr. said. said about how the fight with Morrell was finally made.
“Hopefully we can get an opportunity to fight Beterbiev. He just won on Saturday. So, hopefully, we can get that, but right now we’re focused on David Morrell. We have to look impressive to go to the next level,” Benavidez Sr. said.
If Benavidez loses to Morrell, Jose Sr. must decide which direction to take his son. Will he move back down to 168 or stick it out at 175, hoping to capture one of the belts after Beterbiev vacates?
