David Benavidez fully focused on Kyrone Davis
When super middleweight David “Red Flag” Benavidez (24-0, 21 KO’s) next puts knuckle to skull, he will do so against Kyrone “Shut It Down” Davis (16-2-1, 6 KO’s). The two will test their might with one another in the belly of Arizona’s Footprint Center Arena on November 13. Actually, Davis is a late replacement as Benavidez was originally slated to face Jose Uzcategui on the November date. Regrettably, Uzcategui was abruptly yanked from the card after popping dirty for PED’s. Shut It Down was only too happy to fill the newly vacant opening.
There was also another unfortunate turn of events for Red Flag and Davis. When Benavidez was on the books to duel with Uzcategui, the fight held the designation of being a WBC title eliminator. Yet, with Davis in the opposing corner, the bout has been relegated to your average run of the mill prizefight. Had it remained a title eliminator, it would have stood as Red Flag’s second consecutive time competing in one. His last outing with Ronald Ellis, an eleventh round knockout win, was also a WBC title eliminator.
LUCKY LOTTO TIME?
Of course, winning the title eliminator would supposedly make Red Flag the WBC mandatory challenger for undisputed super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Not only is Benavidez close to having that legitimate claim to the fight, he is widely viewed as Canelo’s toughest fight in the division. With that being the case, the Arizonan bruiser is already a leading candidate for the Alvarez sweepstakes.
The former WBC super middleweight champion both, wants the Alvarez dustup and is aware how technically close he is to securing it. Nevertheless, the throwback boxer firmly understands that overlooking Davis now is the perfect way to sabotage his own ambitions. The New Jersey born boxer has fast hands, an aggressive style and a serviceable chin. Trained by Stephen “Breadman” Edwards, Shut It Down feels that he is more than prepared to meet this challenge.
Two fights ago he fought to a draw with Anthony Dirrell. Dirrell just recently claimed an eye-bulging one punch uppercut knockout of Marco Hernandez. The recent glossy win, on the Alvarez v Plant undercard, only serves to give his draw more luster. In his last bout, Davis earned a hard-battled unanimous decision over Martez McGregor. Being that this dustup was on September 5 though, some will wonder if this fight with Benavidez is coming too soon for Davis.
FOCUS ON MY NEXT FOE
No matter how things ultimately play out in the ring, Red Flag is not approaching the bout in lackadaisical fashion. He realizes that it doesn’t make any difference how close he is to the redhead fight if he stumbles in the squared-circle against Davis. David Benavidez spoke at greater length on the topic during a recent interview with Fight Hype.
“I take him very serious, I was getting ready for somebody else and I took that person very serious too! So, I had a tremendous training camp. In all honesty, I have been training for about four and a half months because, before I had caught COVID, my training camp was done already. It was two weeks left to the fight. So I got COVID and trained after three weeks, so I’m really basically coming off of two camps. And I take every opponent seriously. Kyrone Davis had a great last fight with Anthony Dirrell, so I know he is a live dog in there. He knows this is a big opportunity for him too, so we are taking him very seriously.”
By: Bakari Simpson
