Jose Benavidez Jr calls this stage in his career 2.0 but it could be 3.0 or even 4.0. He had a lot of starts and stops.
David Benavidez’s brother was shot in the leg in an incident that went public in August 2016, leaving his limbs permanently damaged. He had a notable comeback in February 2018, stopping Frank Rojas.
Eight months later he gave his best but was stopped 12 laps by welderweight champion Terence Crawford, after which he left the sport again for more than three years to focus on his growing young family. its own development.
He came back for the second time last November, when he drawing with Francisco Torres in his hometown of Phoenix.
And now, the 30-year-old is expected to face former two-weight division president Danny Garcia at £154 on July 30 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, a fight he hopes will give allowing him to regain a place among his elite rivals.
“It will be fine,” Benavidez told Boxing Junkie. “It will take me back to the rankings, back to the top. If I beat Danny Garcia, people would say, ‘Oh, s—! He beat Danny Garcia! ‘ Danny Garcia fought [Errol] Spence, [Keith] Thurman, [Shawn] Porter, all these people, and he did a great job.
“You’ll see it happen, you’ll see it.”
Benavidez (27-1-1, 18 KOs) said he took a break from post-Crawford to spend time with his wife and daughters, who are 10, 2 and 4 months old. His full house takes precedence over his career.
“Boxing will always be there,” he said, “but my daughter’s first steps only happened once.”
The hiatus also served another purpose: It rekindled his love of the sport, an important part of his life and that of his fighting family since he was a child. as a child.
He’s serious about the task at hand, a challenging fight against one of the sport’s biggest names on national television (Showtime). He is also very happy.
“I’ve been doing this for so long that it gets boring,” he said. “Once you rest, you realize that you have a love of boxing, a love of fighting. And it makes it so much better than my family here and behind me 110 percent. “
Benavidez didn’t love his performance against the underdog Torres in his most recent comeback, which he had to settle with a majority draw.
He advises not to read too much into that result. He said he tried too hard to knock his opponent out in front of his hometown fans, abandoning fundamentals in the process. So he gave Torres a chance to play.
He said the match against Garcia (36-3, 21 KOs) will be different.
He feels good physically. His leg will never be 100% but it’s still as sturdy as it’s felt since the shoot, partly due to yoga. He feels more comfortable at 154 pounds than at 147. He says he walks between 170 and 180.
And he’s not going to take off Garcia’s head. If that happens, great. If not, that’s fine too. The goal is to win.
“People ask me, ‘Are you going to take him down’?” Benavidez said. “My answer to that is that I will start a war. I’ll do what I used to do, my basics, go back to that, improve on that. … I won’t throw crazy punches.
“Trust me, though: When I find those good punches, they hurt him. And I don’t know if he can get them or not. It’ll be fine.”
