David Benavidez Jr. admits fighting the winner of this bout outside his division intrigues him

David Benavidez Jr. is months away from trying to defend his WBC light heavyweight world title against Anthony Yarde in the main event of Ring IV in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on November 22.

While the undefeated 28-year-old would welcome a crack at unified 175-pound ruler Dmitry Bivol, a former sparring partner of his, Benavidez admitted to DAZN News that there is a challenge outside of his division that he’s intrigued about as well.

With Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez and Jai Opetaia seemingly on a collision course to unify their cruiserweight world titles, Benavidez would jump at the chance to move up and fight the winner. It is just that he has to handle his business against Yarde first.

“I think I would definitely love to fight both of them but right now, I’m on this fight Nov. 22,” Benavidez said following Friday’s Ring IV press conference at Hard Rock Times Square in New York City. “But in the future I think that’s where I’m going to end up at.”

For Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs), it is all about testing himself against the best boxers thrown into the ring with him as he has been using the past few fights showcasing how he is levels above his competition whether David Lemieux, Caleb Plant, Demetrius Andrade, Oleksandr Gvozdyk or most recently Cuban fighter David Morrell in February.

Against Yarde (27-3, 24 KOs), Benavidez faces a fighter who is riding a four-fight win streak, having last edged Lyndon Arthur by unanimous decision in April.

“At the end of the day, I just want to be the best version of myself,” Benavidez said, “and beat the best fighters out there so that way they have nothing to say about me.”