Oleksandr Usyk, Napoleon, and the Gamble Facing David Benavidez

Oleksandr Usyk will face kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven beneath the shadow of the Great Pyramids of Giza on May 23. It will be perhaps the greatest battle those ancient stones have seen since Napoleon Bonaparte led the French Army into Egypt in 1798.

Before the Battle of the Pyramids, the future emperor implored his troops, “Soldiers, from the tops of these pyramids, forty centuries look down upon you.”

For Napoleon, Egypt was a stage for destiny. Usyk now steps into the same desert carrying his own claim to greatness. A potential super fight is already looming in his future.

Turki Al Sheik, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (GEA) and co-founder of Zuffa Boxing, is already dreaming of another megafight. He has suggested Benavidez as a possible opponent for Oleksander Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs). For now, Usyk is set to face Rico Verhoeven on May 23. A Benavidez fight would have to wait until 2027.

Former World Champion Roy Jones Jr has suggested that Benavidez (32-0, 26 KOs) should aim to make a heavyweight title run sooner rather than later.

“If Canelo’s not fighting you, forget everybody else and go straight to [Oleksandr] Usyk,” Jones said on All The Smoke Fight. “Don’t play with anybody else. The Usyk fight is one of the biggest fights of this decade. Take it while it’s hot.”

Benavidez is currently the WBC light heavyweight champion and picked up the WBA and WBO cruiserweight titles in his last ring appearance.

Roy Jones Jr. (66–10, 47 KOs) would know a thing or two about heavyweight title fights as a former middleweight champion. He won the vacant IBF middleweight title by defeating Bernard Hopkins (55–8–2, 2 NC, 32 KOs) in 1993. Ten years later, Jones won the WBA heavyweight title against John Ruiz (44–9–1, 1 NC, 30 KOs) in 2003.

A world title challenge against Usyk is a far different proposition than John Ruiz. It's high-risk, high-reward. Oleksandr Usyk is exactly the sort of superior boxer built for the slow heavyweight tanks of his era.

He might have struggled more in earlier eras, say the 1950s, when you had mobile heavyweights with astonishing footwork. Go back and watch Jersey Joe Walcott (51–18–2, 30 KOs) and Ezzard Charles (95–25–1, 52 KOs)—men who could close the distance on their own terms. That, of course, is hypothetical. Does Benavidez have the footwork and hand speed to steal rounds from Usyk?

Should Benavidez fight Usyk now?

What is not hypothetical is this: David Benavidez has not caught on with the common man. The cruiserweight champion needs a breakout fight, and Usyk might just be that. Benavidez doesn’t even have a million solid followers on Instagram. A fight with Canelo Alvarez (63–2–2 with 39 knockouts) was supposed to be his ticket, but that appears more distant than ever.

Benavidez, were he to win a heavyweight title, would become a kind of middleweight monarch, conquering the lands between divisions—something in the spirit of Roy Jones Jr. Jones skipping cruiserweight in his own rapid rise ( though no boxing historian doubts Roy Jones could have become a cruiserweight champion).

Napoleon’s history was not flawless, but his sense of timing was impeccable. His army won the battle and took Egypt because he understood when to strike.

Similarly, for David Benavidez, it may also just come down to timing.

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