Mike Tyson Names One Active Boxer He’d be Scared to Fight
Boxing legend Mike Tyson has named the one fighter from the sport’s current crop that he would be afraid to fight. “Iron Mike” poured praise on 28-year-old Arizona native David Benavidez and even called him “The Mexican Monster.”
Benavidez is the current WBA light heavyweight champion and also holds the record for being the youngest super middleweight champion in history, which he claimed by defeating David Lemieux by technical knockout in May 2022.
In an interview with ESNews in 2024, Tyson outlined how he would fancy Benavidez to come out on top against any of his fellow fighters in the boxing world at the moment, saying: “I like him against everybody. He’s so underrated but so over-polarised here. Listen, I’d be afraid to fight him too if I was in that division. No one even has a chance against him, and I’m talking facts.”
David Benavidez’s Boxing Career
There’s a reason Mike Tyson has praised him so highly
The opponent that everybody wants to see Benavidez take on is Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, but that fight may take a while to come to fruition. Despite the former being the mandatory challenger to the unified champion for more than a year, a bout between the pair has not yet happened, and the potential challenger is apparently getting tired of waiting to fight the champ.
Benavidez has had an impressive rise in the sport, becoming super middleweight champion with a victory over Ronald Gavril in 2017. The American then moved up to the light heavyweight division in 2024 and claimed the interim WBC light heavyweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Oleksandr Gvozdyk in Las Vegas. Benavidez then clinched the WBA light heavyweight title with another unanimous decision triumph, this time over David Morrell last month. This pair of victories means that the 28-year-old is now the mandatory challenger to undisputed champion Dmitry Bivol, with a clash between the pair already being one of the most hotly-anticipated in the sport.
It is currently up in the air whether a fight between them will happen, however, after advanced talks by Benavidez to make the fight a reality have apparently stalled in recent months. Bivol may well opt to fight Artur Beterbiev in a trilogy bout, leaving Benavidez open to fight Liverpool’s Callum Smith.
Mike Tyson is a Huge Fan of David Benavidez
Iron Mike has praised the American before
Tyson’s interview last year wasn’t the first time he has praised Benavidez either. After he handed Demetrius Andrade the first defeat of his professional career by stopping him in the sixth round in 2023, the American was greeted by Tyson during the post-fight interviews. Tyson’s faith in the fighter is backed by the statistics, as Benavidez is currently on a major hot streak of 30 fights undefeated, with 24 of those victories coming by knockout, making him one of the most feared boxers in the sport today.
Benavidez has a way to go to match Tyson’s legacy, however, whose reputation as one of the greatest heavyweights of all time still survives. Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in the sport’s history when he knocked out Trevor Berbick in the second round in November 1986 to clinch the title at just 20 years old.
