LAS VEGAS -- David Benavidez wasn't unlike many American teen-agers in that he had an affinity for video games and fast food. Taco Bell, Burger King and McDonald's were frequent stops for him.
He came from a fighting family, but when he was 15 his love of fast food ballooned his weight to 260 pounds. Being a world champion seemed an unlikely destination for him.
The love of the fight, though, eventually won out. And when he was 16 years old, he made the trip up the mountain to tiny Big Bear, Calif., where he made a bold request: He wanted to spar Gennadiy Golovkin, the powerful middleweight champion who was then unbeaten and one of the most feared fighters in the world.
"His father is a friend of mine and asked me if he could spar Gennadiy," said legendary trainer Abel Sanchez, who has ended his retirement and is now training heavyweight contender Filip Hrgovic. "I said 'Sure,' and David handled himself very well."
Golovkin didn't try to punish Benavidez, but Sanchez said, "If David was just a little older and Gennadiy could have gone really hard on him, I think he would have given us the best work we got up there."
Benavidez is now the world champion in his prime, and he's got his eye on big things. He will fight unbeaten David Morrell Jr. Saturday for his WBC interim light heavyweight title and Morrell's regular WBA light heavyweight belt in the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions card at T-Mobile Arena that will stream on PPV.com.
Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs), is brimming with confidence and believes he's on the verge of big things.
“This camp has been amazing and it’s gonna be my best performance yet," Benavidez said. "This is the strongest I’ve ever been."
That's saying something. Benavidez has always been a huge talent. He was something of an enigma earlier in his career. He tested positive for cocaine in 2018 and missed weight for a title fight in 2020. It was fair to wonder then whether he had the discipline to harness his obvious talent and make it to the top.
Give him credit for recognizing is career could be in jeopardy and taking proactive steps to solve the problem. He's gone 6-0 with 4 knockouts in his last six bouts and has begun to resemble the potential superstar many thought he would become.
Sanchez has watched Benavidez from afar for a long time and said that while Benavidez hasn't added dimensions to his game like some of the other greats have, he is still a force in his class.
"You think of the really top guys, like Canelo [Alvarez], Gennadiy, Floyd [Mayweather], they all progressed and added things as they moved along," Sanchez said. "They could do different things when they needed to. I don't see that with David. He's doing the same things now he was doing a number of years ago. He's very good at those, but he hasn't added to his game."
What he's done has worked, though, and worked almost flawlessly. He's positioned himself to fight for the undisputed title later this year. If he defeats Morrell on Saturday, he'll be the front-runner to face the winner of the Feb. 22 rematch between undisputed champion Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
If he doesn't get that bout, he said he'll move up and pursue a cruiserweight belt. That, though, is down the road.
The bout with Morrell is significant, as both are among the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. They are each unbeaten and are in their primes with seemingly unlimited potential.
They've developed a heated rivalry that has featured intense staredowns and plenty of trash talk. Benavidez is annoyed at Morrell, but said the talk is insignificant. Talking or not, he knows all that matters on Saturday is competing up to his potential.
“The thing about this is that it’s not fake," he said. "We don’t like each other. We have everything we need for a great fight. Nobody is going to stop me. This is my year and this is the era of David Benavidez.”
Right now, it's The Artur Beterbiev Era. He's won all the belts in the ring, is undefeated at 21-0 and has won 20 of his 21 by knockout. Benavidez, though, is poised to make that next significant push, but to do it, he'll have to be on his game to get past Morrell.
With each victory, Benavidez inches closer to fulfilling the immense potential he showed more than a decade ago as a teen-ager sparring Golovkin. Besting a fighter of Morrell's quality will leave him one huge win away from beginning The Benavidez Era.