David Benavidez Pulls Away from a Fight with Oleksandr Usyk

For the last couple of weeks, we've been hearing all about how The Ring Magazine Heavyweight Champion, Oleksandr Usyk was going to attempt to make history by dropping down to his old division of cruiserweight, to beat the top dog, David Benavidez.

Benavidez is due to fight Michael Cieslak on December 5th. If he wins, as he is expected to do, he will add the WBC title to the WBA and WBO that he already holds. 

After that, it was believed Usyk would be next, but David now seems to have other ideas. He is saying that he made a man-to-man promise to share a ring with the Ring Magazine Cruiserweight Champion, Jai Opetaia, and that he intends to honour his word. 

Behaving honourably is always commendable, especially so in a cut-throat business like boxing. But I don't understand why Benavidez still feels honour-bound, when Opetaia is going in a completely different direction? 

The undefeated Australian is moving up to heavyweight to take on the former WBC heavyweight champion, Deontay Wilder on the Fury vs Joshua undercard in Wales on December 11th. There is no guarantee that Opetaia will ever come back down to cruiserweight after that contest, which he is generally expected to win. 

It should be mentioned that even if Benavidez and Opetaia were to meet at cruiserweight, the winner would not be the undisputed champion, because Jai was stripped of his IBF belt when he joined Zuffa.

Benavidez could of course follow Opetaia up to heavyweight, but there would be no titles at all stake if they meet in that division.

I find it hard to comprehend the decision to turn down the opportunity to be the first man to defeat a generational great like Usyk.

But on the other hand, I can sort of understand why Benavidez would want to face his biggest rival at cruiserweight.  He will be acutely aware that he never shared a ring with his esteemed fellow champions at light heavyweight, Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev. He doesn't want to leave the cruiserweight ranks with similar questions left unanswered. 

He wants to be known as The Man at cruiserweight. Actually, he wants to be known as much more than that. He believes he is on target to be called the best fighter in all of boxing.

But David doesn't need more glory at cruiserweight to achieve that aim. If he defeats Usyk, and puts on a show while doing so, both his stock and his profile will be boosted immeasurably. If he were then to move up to heavyweight and capture titles there, he would surely earn the recognition of many as the world's number one boxer.

Defeating his old rival Opetaia would seem like small beer in comparison.