By J Sotomayor: Oleksandr Gvozdyk (20-1, 16 KOs) will be fighting David Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs) in a light heavyweight title eliminator this summer.
While it isn’t the fight the majority of fans want to see, I guess we’re going to have to settle for it, and that’s OK with me. I do not believe that we, the fans, know everything that is going on behind the scenes, but no matter how you perceive it, this fight will generate more interest. The winner of this fight will face the winner of Arthur Beterviev and Dimitri Bivol.
While waiting for a Canelo super fight, Benavidez has beaten solid opposition and set himself as the real danger at 168 for Canelo. I don’t want to go on and speculate about all the excuses or reasons for not making the fight happen. Based on the body of work that Benavidez has put together and watching reviews of Gvozdyk’s last few fights, I believe Benavidez will stop Gvozdyk in the middle rounds. I think Benavidez will carry his power very well, given that he doesn’t have to drain down more. This is a win-win situation for Benavidez. He knocks out Gvozdyk. He gets a shot at the undisputed championship in the winter.
But let’s look at it from another perspective. Benavides struggles to make 168 now; he’s going to go up to 175, but keeping’s Canelo’s opportunity open. Unfortunately, this means that he will have to drain once again to get to 168 and will possibly have to accept a rehydration clause for the Canelo fight. This is almost certainly going to be included in the contract. This is why I believe that Canelo set this up with his own stable fighter, you get him to go up and wait and try to make weight at 168 again which he struggled for years to make. This would be a grueling task for Benavidez. He might just take a chance and risk it all doing exactly that. Only time will tell us the story of how this all unfolded. But you can be sure that this summer we’re getting what the expression goes “slobber knockers”.
Gvozdyk Stands only a punchers chance. He will be valiant in defeat but he will meet the fate he met against Beterviev.