Oleksandr Gvozdyk has said that he has a deal to fight David Benavidez in June.
Benavidez is undefeated and currently operates at super middleweight, and would be expected to move up to fight at light heavyweight to come up against the Ukrainian contender.
Benavidez had been in the frame to fight Canelo Alvarez, who traditionally puts on a huge event on Cinco de Mayo weekend, so if Gvozdyk vs. Benavidez goes ahead then a fight with Canelo is almost certainly not on the cards at least until the back-end of 2024.
Gvozdyk is No. 2 in the WBC rankings for 175lbs and has just one career defeat, to unified champion Artur Beterbiev back in 2019.
“As they say, there is no smoke without fire,” Gvozdyk told BoxingScene.com . “They have made an offer, I have said ‘yes’ and now start working towards it. There is not much more that I can tell you, this only started happening yesterday. I’ve immediately said ‘yes’ and that is it so far.
“My trainer came to me and told me about this fight, I think it is awesome. This is why I came back to boxing, to fight at the top level.
“I want to be champion again, and to fight for the mandatory position is amazing, it will then be for all four belts. It is perfect. I assume it will be pay-per-view, he’s one of the biggest names out there. It couldn’t be better for me. From what I know it will be in June or July.”
Gvozdyk added: “I don’t see why they would make me an offer if they are going to fight Canelo,” “It doesn’t make sense, Canelo is going to fight in May, we would fight in June or July. Benavidez is a great fighter, he is still going to be very big at light heavyweight. People call him The Monster Bandera for a reason, come on. At 168 he was huge, but he will be bigger than me even at 175.
“It will be a very tough fight and a very tough challenge.”
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