Well, I would like to welcome to our podcast.
This week it is the WBC Light Heavyweight Champion of the World, David Benavidez, also the WBA's regular title holder.
David, Welcome to the show.
I'm looking forward to this fight you have coming up November twenty second on the Ring Magazine pay per view card from read Saudi Arabia. You'll be headlining defending your title against Anthony Yard, the experienced venter who spot for world titles before. So welcome to the show. I know you've recently just gotten to Saudi Arabia. I was the trip, and tell me about your thoughts on on making that long excursion to the other side of the world for this fight.
Yeah. I felt really good.
You know, I'm really excited for this. It was extremely long trip, but you know, now we're here, so the hardest part of the travel is over.
But I felt really good. Man.
I've been working extremely hard for this training camp. I got like about four months and a half training and every camp, you know, for me, seems to be the best camp because you know, the stakes keep getting highed, you know, I keep you know, I'm getting more experience, you know, and I'm I'm finding myself in a comfort zone. You know, I'm really getting into my prime now. So I felt really good. Man, I've been I've worked extremely hard.
I didn't leave any stone unturned, conditioning, sparring, running, Everything came out really well for this fight. You know, I'm only you know, I'm nine pounds away from the weight cut or from the weight right now, so you know, I'm a little bit ahead of schedule.
So I'm very excited. I'm very happy.
You know, they've treated me really good. I've been received really well here and you know, I'm excited for this for the real season card.
So one thing I wanted to ask you about that.
I mean, I was at your last fight back in February, had a great win against David Morrell in a really good fight, and there was a lot of discussion after that fight because your about took place just a week or two before they had the rematch between Dimitri Bibo and Arthur Better Viet that were fighting for the undisputed title, and you had been invited to attend that fight by Turkey Alshikhus putting on this cart. And I remember you
came to the press conference after your victory. You were very respectful, but you're like, listen, you know what, I'm making my fan base here in Las Vagas. This has been one of the best event I've had. Great crowd that was on fire for your fight, good performance, and you were building yourself and your preference was to continue to build yourself in Las Vegas and not go overseas
and fight in Saudi Arabia. And now here we are, uh, you know later this later that same year, and in fact your next fight will be in Saudi Arabia, uh, in this fight against Anthey Art. So I'm wondering what was uh, what was it that changed? I mean, I assume there was a financial offer that you couldn't refuse, perhaps, but what was it that made you change your mind and and uh and and decide to leave Vegas and go to fight in Saudi Yeah.
So it was actually suggested by you know, PBC Al Haymon and samsu Lucus that I fight over here. They you know, they gave me a pretty good offer. And then not only about this this fight in particular, but you know, there may be you know, other great fights that we could look, we could see into maybe with arts are better be it maybe will be bold, and you know it's my right to come out here. And you know, and and uh contend for the world titles.
You know, I've been you know, decline to fight, you know, to unify the titles on one sixty eight. So you know, one seventy five, I was you know, I was the number one contender for the WBC. You know, I was elevated for the WBC World Champion Championship. But you know, my al Haim and Samson Lukewitz and PBC, you know, they're really cool about it. They suggested that I fought over here, so you know, it's a it was a win win situation.
For both of us.
You know, I definitely did want to stay in Las Vegas and fight my next fight, but you know, things happen, and you know, this is this is another great opportunity for me, you know, and and and in my career, you know, and and ultimately my goal is to unify the belts at one seventy five. You know, I was supposed to do that against Dmitri Buvolt, but he got injured and they say they want to get the fight with with uh er better be it for the third time.
So you know, we got to just wait patiently. But while we wait patiently, this is the next best fight that we can make happen.
So what do you think, though, when this is over, we'll see you back in Vegas in the not too distant future.
Yeah, I think so. You know, we've had to see things go. But I definitely do want to go back to Vegas and fight. Like I said, I want to you know, my market is in the US. Well, like I said, there was an opportunity here that I could fight for the fans of Saudi Arabia, and you know, I'm just excited to be here and perform for these fans out here.
Well, you mentioned about, you know, some of the other names in the way class and how you you know, had been elevated from interim, and I was I'm interested to hear. The perspective from the fighters is, Unfortunately, in today's boxing day and age, there's a lot of tremendous fighters that get their belts because they've become interim champions and don't get necessary to fight the actual champion to
win that belt. That title holder might vacator, something happens and the other guy gets elevated, which was.
The case that happened to you.
Is there any sort of sense of disappointment that, Well, certainly, I don't think anybody's gonna look at David Denavie to say you're not a worthy champion and fight heavyweights or when you were at super middleweight, but that the way that you obtained the belt was because of being elevated. That it kind of it denies you of the of the of the thing that every champion wants to hear, you know, and the new you know in the ring.
How do you square that circle? I guess yeah, it was for me.
It's a little I'm not gonna say disappointing because you know, I'm still I got the world title, but I would I'm an old school fighter. I'd rather win it. I'd rather go in there and win it in front of a crowd. Well, like I said, nonetheless, the world title is a world title, you know, and that puts me in position to get other big fights, you know, with
with with h for other world titles. So, like I said, it's a little disappointing, but at the end of the day, you know, world world champion right now, so that's all that matters.
Well, you mentioned a little bit about the you know, the very rigorous travel, tough travel to get there, a long trip from the United States, particularly being on the West coast, to get all the way to read and now because the fights and read uh at least to accommodate the audience for this fight, which is going to be largely an American audience because of your fight and as well as some of the great undercard fights on the show that are American bass fighters. It's going to
be at an unusual time. Uh, not for us here in the United States where we'll see it when we normally would see fights, but for the boxers involved, it's going to be basically the middle of the night. We've seen that happen with some other fights. How are you dealing or how do you plan to deal with sort of the adjustment to make sure that you're at your best when you might be fighting at like four in the morning local time.
Yeah, so I've adjusted my my my sleeping schedule. Basically, I'm more of a night out now, you know. I'm actually about to go to the gym right now at twelve. Gets started probably in like around two thirty or three, but I came here a month earlier. I've been in Dubai the past three weeks, so you know, just just to deal with the time difference and all that. But I've already started training at twelve, so my body's getting has been getting used to that. Fighting at night. It's
something different for me. You know, I'm not gonna say that I'm gonna know exactly how I feel fighting at four, i am, but you know, we're we're taking the right precautions to make sure the body gets used to the late the fight change.
Well, certainly, if you've already been over in Dubai for three weeks, the time there compared to Saudi Arabia is a lot more similar than if you were still, you know, here in the United States.
But anyway, let's talk a little bit and the art.
He is your opponent, a well known fighter, certainly to the British fans anyway, a respected veteran, challenge for the world title twice before. This will be his third opportunity. He is oh and two in those fights, he got stopped in round eleven by Sergey Kovalev, and really what was Sergey's last big win in twenty nineteen. Followed that up in twenty twenty three, he got knocked out by Arthur better Viev in the eighth round. He has won four fights in a row since then. He avenged a
loss to Lindon Arthur in April. I wonder what is your view of Yard and in terms of where he is in the scheme of the light heavyweights, you know, he has lost, like I said, in the moments where he has stepped up seems to me in terms of his skills, and I don't mean this negatively basic, you know, but with good punching power.
Also, yeah, he's a good fighter, but unfortunately for him, he's going to be oh and three in world title fights. You know, he's, like I said, you put on some great performances, but nonetheless he's came up short every single time. And you know, I put myself on the same level or if not better than those champions that you mentioned, you know, like better Vi a Covid le f and you know, but he's gonna us going to come in tremendous shape. You know, he's you know, he's a strong fighter.
But you know, I just feel like I'm in a different level right now. I feel like I've seen that type of fighting style before over and over again. But you know, like I said, I didn't take him easily. I didn't take him lightly. I'm not overlooking him. I heard his trainers saying that I'm overlooking him. I've never overlooked anybody. That's why I'm in the position I am right now. And if anything, I probably trained harder from
him than I have for anybody else. You know, like I said, I have four months and I have training for this training cabin. I'm tremendous shape, and I feel really good, and I see a lot of opportunities for me to hurt him in a lot of different cases. And so you know, I've put together a great game plan. Now it's just for me to go in there. You know, follow my game plan, you know, keep my distance, use the jab, attack the body, through the combinations, and you know, just just just.
Continue to attack.
But like I said, I see a lot of holes in his game. And you know, if I follow my game plan, if I follow my game plan perfectly, I see myself stopping him.
Well, I was gonna ask you about that.
You're this is gonna be your third fight now since you've moved up from Super Midawaight at Super midtaweight, you are pretty much destroying everybody, knocking guys out looking uh, you know, not just good in terms of winning, but in terms of doing it in style with the stoppage. In your two fights so far at seventy five, you went the distance with a former champion, Alexander Votzik, and then you had the decision. Also, you know, both of
them were clear decisions against David Morrell as well. So I guess there are some people that say, Okay, he's got two fights at light heavyweight, went the twelve round distance both times. Did he carry his punching power that was so evident at super midawaight into the light heavyweight division. Obviously we'll see what happens in the fight with Anthony Ark, But how do you think that that has translated? Are you still the puncher at light heavyweight that you work at super middleweight?
No, I definitely do feel like I'm the puncher. It's just that and now I've noticed that going up in weight class, these guys are bigger, So you you don't have to shrictly just focus on punching power. You have to go back to the basics. You have to use footwork, you know, you have to use combinations, You have to set things up. You have to use the distance. And like I said, I've I've worked on the things. I've worked on those things. You know, I've, like I said,
I've put together a really good game plan. And you know, people are gonna say whatever they want to say. But at the end of the day, once he's seen both those fights. I heard both those fighters in both of those fights.
So that's true.
Power hasn't The power hasn't gone anywhere, you know. Like I said, I just need to set it up a little bit better. And you know, and you know, follow my game plan more. You know, like I said, me and my father, my team, we put together a great, great game plan. So now I'm gonna just I'm gonna go in there, follow the game plan. But I guarantee you I will hurt at the yard in there, and you know, I do see myself stopping him in the later rounds.
I know you spent all that time chasing Canelo Alvarez when you guys were both in the super midweight division.
I was wondering. You know.
He come off a loss in his last bet in September against Terrence Crawford, who moved up two way classes to fight him, And I wonder when you saw the way that he performed, which certainly he did not look at his against Terrence Crawford, who fought obviously a really good fight. Uh, do you think that that performance was sort of the proof needed to show that he was Probably for him, it wasn't his best interest to mess around with David Denvitez.
Yeah, I think so.
I think that's why they put the fight. You know, they that they didn't want to fight for such a long time, and that's why they keeps shooting the question down when every time to ask him. They know that I'm not coming to play any games. They know I'm a strong fighter, they know I'm a red lentless fighter. They know I have a great gas tank in the fights, so they knew they definitely know him a big problem. You know, whether whether I say that there he was
ducking me or not. You know, that's gonna, you know, bring up a whole lot of stuff.
People are gonna say this and.
That, But at the end of the day, I know what I could do in there with Canelo aubera Is and he knows what I could do as well. So you know, maybe this this fight, the loss with him in Terrence Crawford. Maybe this puts me at a better position to get a fight with him, because now what is Canelo going to do. He doesn't have any belts, there's not really anybody else for him to fight at
one sixty eight. In my opinion, his best interest is to come up to one seventy five fight Callum Smith, get a victory with Callum Smith or whoever however that fight plays out, and then I could get the winner that fight. You know, That's really what makes sense to me in my head. But like I said, Canello could do whatever he wants. You know, I'm I'm chasing my dreams. You know, my dreams are unifying the world's world championships, the world titles. Dmitri Beeble has that. So if whenever
he fights him and arts are better be it. You know, whoever gets whoever wins that fight. You know, I'm definitely going to be pursuing a fight with that with that person to unify the belts.
Which makes a lot of sense because you're the mandatory and they're the two biggest names, and honestly, if you take a look beyond the two of those guys, and then there's yourself. Of course, there's not a lot beyond that in terms of true depth in the division, and so hopefully at some point we'll see those fights. But one thing I'm interested beyond that is, and you've said this, I think in the past that at some point David Benavidez is going to be a cruiserweight down the road.
I found with interest that recently when Oscar de la Hoya promoted his card in between Virgil Artis when he had his fight against ericson Lubin. They did an interview with him during the dizone broadcast and he was talking about, you know, the return of from injury of the unified cruiserweight title holder Zerto Ramirez that he promotes, and they were talking up the prospect of when he comes back, would he do a you know, a big cruiserweight fight against ji Opataia, who was of course the IBF and
the lineal champion. And Oscar said, yeah, we'd love to make that fight. But Denny said, I got another idea. He said, what would you think about Zerto Ramerez against David Benavidez. And I was like, yeah, that's the hell
of a fight. Is your future? I know you got stuff to accomplish that light heavyweight or as you said, in your prime but in the maybe not too distant future, does cruiserweight beckon and what are your thoughts about those fights that were mentioned, whether it's Opataia Zerto all Mexican kind of battle.
To be honest with you, I think it's very clear that I've been trying to achieve great and this no matter of what weight class on that. So right now, I got my fight with Anthony Yard, But if I'm able to get a fight with Zula Ramirez my next fight, then that's the route I'm I'm gonna take, you know.
Like I said, I want to be an all time great by the time my career is finished. And I feel like if we can make the fight with Ramirez happen next and I definitely take that fight, you know, and then after that we'll see what comes, you know what I mean.
But I'm ready presented itself.
A fight well over Tile would be a great fight, But like I said, I'd want to get my feet wet at the cruiserweight division first, because in my opinion, over Title is the strongest fighter at cruiserweight. So if I could get a fight with Suda Ramirez then come back down and when and when the unify the titles in one seventy five, I would definitely go back up to cruiseweight and fight over the title.
It's a lot of.
Great fights, you know, I said, We're we're in a great position right now where there's so much good fights. All I gotta do is continue winning, continue doing my part. And but I will, like I said, I'm a man of my word. I'm gonna give my fans the best fights possible. If I'm able to make these fights happen and negotiate a deal any of these champions, I am gonna take it well.
I think fans would be loving.
I love to hear that, and obviously it all starts in terms of that halfway. You got the big fight with Yard November twenty two on his own pay per view. David, thank you very much for your time, enjoying your time. You're on a business trip to Saudi Arabia.
Good luck to you, Yes, sir, thank you