Though Ryan Garcia has declared himself has declared himself as the ‘face of boxing’, Roy Jones Jnr believes it is the face of David Benavidez that fits better.
Jones Jnr, who may or may not have been the ‘face’ during an illustrious career in which he was undoubtedly the best, nonetheless expects that face to be tested if and when it encounters the fists of Jai Opetaia.
“[David] Benavidez, without a question, is the face of boxing,” Jones told Parimatch Slots Site.
“David Benavidez is still the top dog right now. Bam Rodríguez is on his way. Boots Ennis is on his way. A lot of guys are on their way. Shakur Stevenson is on his way. Tank’s been there for a minute. There are a lot of guys on their way there.
“It’s a really good cast of guys out there to be the top dog, but right now I gotta go with David Benavidez.”
Despite Jones’ obvious admiration, he believes Benavidez should instead have targeted Oleksandr Usyk when he held the heavyweight belts.
“Usyk was an easier fight for him than Opetaia is,” Jones said.
Opetaia is younger, stronger. Opetaia is, to me, much more dangerous for David Benavidez than Usyk is. I thought all along he should’ve taken Usyk over Opetaia. But now that he has Opetaia, he’s gotta take him instead, because that’s all that’s left for him.
“Unless he goes and fights the light heavyweights. If he fought Bivol or Beterbiev, those are highly interesting fights too. Jai Opetaia showed a lot of good things over the weekend. He’s big, but Benavidez is too. He does have punching power. He has shock on his punches, and those are the things that make a difference in the fight sometimes.
“I would like to see how Benavidez takes his punch. If Benavidez takes his punch, then he’s gonna be in trouble, because Benavidez has a work rate out of this world. But we gotta see: can Benavidez take his punch first?”
As for Garcia, 2-1 as a welterweight, still has to prove he’s the best in his weight class, reckons Jones. But he has seen improvement in the WBC boss.
“Ryan is constantly getting better as he goes,” said the four-division champion.
“These other guys, they’re kind of staying where they are. He’s getting better. Teofimo [Lopez] has hit a roadblock. I don’t think he really has improved much. He’s got to get back on the horse and start back getting better.
“[Devin] Haney has gotten better at 147. He looked a lot better in his 147-pound run than he did at 135 and 140. So, I think the Haney fight would be the one I would like to see the most right now, because Haney has shown that he’s gotten better too. Both of those fighters have improved. Teofimo, he’s still Teofimo. He’s not bad, but we haven’t seen massive improvements. We expected to see a little bit more out of him.
“Devin looks really good at 147, so it’s gonna be a tough night for him there. If he can get past Devin, yeah, he probably could clean up the division. Ryan definitely has the tools and the skill to run it, but Devin does too. So, it’s kind of hard to say who will run it at 147 right now. That’s interesting to see, and I can’t wait to see who pans out to be the top dog.”
