David Benavidez has a bold multi-year roadmap laid out, and according to his father and trainer, it ends with a jump all the way up to heavyweight against a former unified champion.
Benavidez made a striking cruiserweight debut this year, moving up 25 pounds from light-heavyweight to knock out unified champion Gilberto Ramirez inside six rounds.
Speaking with ProBox TV, Jose Benavidez Sr. laid out the plan from here: a December title fight against WBC cruiserweight champion Michal Cieslak, followed by a matchup with Jai Opetaia, and then a showdown against either Artur Beterbiev or Dmitry Bivol, a stacked potential 2027 run at 200 pounds.
It’s funny because I was talking to David and what we are looking at; I sat down with David a little bit, we are looking for December to beat the WBC world champion and go with Opetaia, then come down and fight Beterbiev/Bivol.
The real headline, though, is what Benavidez Sr. says could follow all of that. Once his son has cleared the cruiserweight division, the plan calls for a jump to heavyweight against former WBA, WBO, and IBF champion Andy Ruiz Jr.
Benavidez Sr. was careful to frame it as an aspirational idea rather than a locked deal, while also praising Ruiz personally and calling him almost like family, saying he genuinely believes Ruiz would want the fight just as much given the opportunity it represents for both sides.
After that we would love make a fight with Andy Ruiz Jr.
“We are just dreaming here but those are the fights that are very possible to make, I told him that I think those fights are possible to make. Imagine David Benavidez-Andy Ruiz! I want to give a big shoutout to Andy Ruiz, he is a great fighter and my heart is with him, he is like family to me.
“But, at the end of the day, I believe that he would love the same – an opportunity to fight ‘The Mexican Monster’ – and for us it would be a great opportunity.
The timing is notable given where Ruiz’s career currently stands — he ended a two-year layoff earlier this month with a loss to Damian Knyba, his third career defeat, though the 37-year-old has said he intends to keep fighting and bounce back.
If everything goes according to the Benavidez camp’s ambitious four-fight sequence, “The Mexican Monster” could be testing himself against heavyweights as soon as 2027 or 2028, a remarkable trajectory for a fighter who only debuted at cruiserweight this year.
