Benavidez Pop wants Usyk

would have to beat bivol & opetaia first convincingly before thats even considered imo and im not sure that happens.

 

Usyk is simply much better fighter than Fury, nothing to do with Fury being more worn.

 

My point being is even a now worn Fury would obliterate benevidez, so why would Usyk a man who beat a less worn Fury being pitted against him? Usyk stops him in a few rounds if he wants.

 

Benavidez would need to beat Jai or Bivol in the same manner he beat Zurdo for the Usyk fight to even begin to make sense. People are getting far too carried away with this Zurdo win. Ramirez is decent, but he's fringe world-level in a poor division, and in the buildup, he was talking about retirement; it was clear his heart wasn't in it, and then to top it all off, he played right into Benavidez's strategy, which is something Usyk would never do.

However, Usyk is that much bigger and better that he could stand toe-to-toe with Benavidez and take him out in a few rounds. Usyk knocks Benavidez clean out in horrid fashion. Pointless fight. The smarter move is to wait until Usyk retires and the belts fragment, and aim for the weakest HW champion, even then I wouldn't back him to beat somebody like Wardley or Itauma, the size difference is too much.

 

That's an interesting discussion, I think. Who exactly do we think Benevidez could actually beat at HW? How far down the ladder do we have to go to find someone he's got a legitimate shot at beating?

Any of the top guys, absolutely not. So no Usyk, Fury, Wardley, Kabayel, or Dubois.

Mid-tier guys? Doesn't stand a chance with Parker, Miller, Ajagbe, Bakole, Sanchez, or AJ.

Prospects/Inactives? Itauma? Murders Benny inside a round or two. Ruiz? Nah, Ruiz is a tank with hands just as fast. He smashes Benny. Torrez? Maybe? Torrez is small and isn't a big puncher. Really fast, southpaw, and would be moving all over the place which would give Benny problems. Jalolov? Benny would need a step ladder to hit him in the chin. He'd eat a giant right hand and go night night.

So I guess we're having to go to the dregs, right? Makhmudov, Pero, etc. And even then I think those guys are too big for him. Benny has to stand and trade. That's his style and his feet are too awful to do anything else. That means he's gonna eat punches from dudes much bigger and stronger than him.

 

I think Benavidez has probably hit his ceiling at cruiserweight, and I honestly thought Zurdo would give him a lot more problems because of his size, so in hindsight, it is a great win. I don't want to discredit it too much, as I definitely didn't see Benavidez knocking him out. He looks solid at CW, but he also looks fleshy, and while his style is excellent to watch, it would put him right in the firing line at HW against much more monstrous punchers, as you have quite rightly pointed out.

I'd probably give him more of a chance against mid-tier guys, maybe someone like Miller, who barrels forward and telegraphs a lot of his shots, isn't particularly concussive, and is getting on, I think he's 38 this year, but yeah, against the top 10, I don't see him lasting the distance with any of them.

If he gets past Opetaia and can maybe test the water against a fringe HW guy, I dunno, it'd still be a bridge too far, but I said the same thin about Crawford fighting Canelo. I would much rather see David against Bivol and Jai than move up to HW. Both very exciting fights. It's a total waste of time fighting Usyk. If Turki wants it, though, it'll happen, but I'm not sure why Benavidez's team think they can take on Usyk. They're clearly not watching the same guy I've been watching for the last few years.

 

Never fails, Benavidez beats a sluggish Zurdo and people now think he can be the heavyweight champ

 

Put him in with Dubious, a double KO victim of Usyk.
Why not call out some other HW's?