David Benavidez is already mapping out an ambitious alternative career path should his heavily anticipated cruiserweight showdown with Jai Opetaia fail to materialize next year, with the Mexican-American star setting his sights on the heavyweight division and an eventual clash with Oleksandr Usyk.
A potential match-up between the two elite cruiserweight standouts, Benavidez and Opetaia, has been a major talking point within the boxing world over the past few months. Those discussions intensified significantly following Opetaia’s impressive performance last month, where he stopped Noel Mikaelian inside nine rounds. Immediately following that victory, Opetaia faced off with Benavidez in the ring, setting the stage for what many fans and pundits hoped would be one of the most explosive bouts in the sport.
Before any future mega-fights can be finalized, however, "The Mexican Monster" has crucial business to attend to in the division. Benavidez is scheduled to step into the ring against Michal Cieslak in December. In that upcoming bout, he will be looking to add the prestigious WBC cruiserweight title to his growing collection, having already captured the WBO and WBA belts earlier this year in May following a stellar victory over Gilberto Ramirez.
A successful victory against Cieslak in December could have paved a straightforward pathway toward a major championship clash against Opetaia, ideally targeted for Cinco de Mayo weekend next year. However, recent developments threaten to derail those plans. It has been reported that the undefeated New Zealander is currently in active negotiations for a high-profile heavyweight bout against former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. That potential blockbuster is being discussed for the blockbuster undercard or main event rotation alongside the anticipated Tyson Fury versus Anthony Joshua card slated for December.
Faced with the possibility that Opetaia might pivot toward the heavyweight division and a match with Wilder, Benavidez has offered a swift and decisive reaction. Speaking to Inside The Ring, the multi-division standout made it clear that he will not wait around if the landscape shifts, indicating that he is fully prepared to leapfrog the cruiserweight division entirely and test his skills at the heavyweight limit.
"I don’t know what’s going to happen," Benavidez told Inside The Ring when addressing the shifting promotional and match-making landscape. "If Jai Opetaia is looking to fight Wilder then I’ll take my business elsewhere, and if we can’t get that fight on Cinco de Mayo with Jai Opetaia, then we’ll do Usyk."
Such a move would pit Benavidez against one of the most accomplished and decorated fighters of the modern era. Oleksandr Usyk carved his name into boxing history by cleaning out the cruiserweight division to become the undisputed champion, a feat he subsequently repeated at heavyweight by unifying all the major belts and cementing his legacy as a two-time undisputed king.
Although Usyk vacated his unified heavyweight titles earlier this year, the Ukrainian maestro remains a towering figure in the combat sports landscape and appears to be nearing the twilight of an extraordinary career, with speculation mounting that he is lining up one final bout before officially hanging up his gloves.
For some time, conventional wisdom within the boxing community suggested that Deontay Wilder was the most logical and likely option for Usyk’s farewell appearance. However, if "The Bronze Bomber" does ultimately commit to a lucrative and intriguing showdown against Opetaia instead, it could inadvertently clear the path for an entirely different, blockbuster encounter—a stunning, cross-division clash between Benavidez and Usyk that would capture the attention of the entire sporting world.
