Benavidez hopes to celebrate 23rd birthday with 23rd victory

By Norm Frauenheim

PHOENIX, Ariz. – He turns 23 on Friday. Jose Benavidez Jr. approaches his birthday unbeaten, yet not unchallenged. His record is the product of a jab, an exclamation point that is at the cutting edge of his natural talent. He was born with it. Lots of it.

The challenges are a little different. Some are self-imposed. Some unwanted. All are collected over time. With every birthday, there always seem to be a few more. How to celebrate a birthday, perhaps, rests in how they are encountered. How they’re conquered.

Coincidental or not, Benavidez plans to celebrate with a 23rd victory to match his 23 years against Jorge Paez Jr. in the first defense of a major title, the World Boxing Association’s interim 140-pound championship, in a truTV bout at US Airways Center.

The interim suggests that some titles are forever. Nothing could be more misleading. Or foolish. Benavidez, a junior no more and probably a full-fledged welterweight before long, seems to understand as much.

The kid, a professional fighter at 17, is gone. There’s a chiseled face and intense eyes as dark as coal. If you’re looking for the wide-eyed teenager, you’ll have to find his photo in a high-school yearbook. The maturing Benavidez (22-0, 15 KOs) talks with newfound self-assurance. The title might be interim. The fighter who has it, however, doesn’t sound like a disposable champion. He said at a news conference Wednesday that the belt would not leave Phoenix, his hometown.

“I guarantee that,’’ he said.

It was a bold comment, especially against a Paez who grew up in boxing. The soft-spoken Paez (38-5-2, 23 KOs) doesn’t appear to have any of the big-top flamboyance his dad had as a clown in the Mexican circus. Yet, the 27-year-old son has shown some of the toughness that Jorge Sr. possessed as a featherweight champion.

Benavidez is fighting more than just Paez Jr. Skepticism lingers. His unanimous decision for the WBA belt over Mauricio Herrera last December in Las Vegas was controversial. HBO’s commentators and most of the writers thought he got a gift from the judges. Against Paez Jr., they’ll be watching to see if they were right. Benavidez’ challenge is to prove them wrong.

“We have to score a stoppage, win convincingly, for my son to take a significant step in his career,’’ his father and trainer Jose Benavidez Sr. said Wednesday during a news conference for a card that includes Antonio Orozco-versus-Emmanuel Taylor and is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. (PST).

Benavidez, Jr. and Sr., hoped for a rematch with Herrera. Only a convincing victory in a second fight could knock out every doubt. Even if he beats Paez Jr, there will still be controversy about the scorecards against Herrera, a Golden Boy Promotions fighter

“I told him I’d fight him,’’ Benavidez said. “I said so right after the fight and ever since. But he wants bigger names, I guess.’’

Benavidez is probably five years away from his prime. He figures to get better as he matures. It doesn’t always work that way, of course. But an older Benavidez sounds as if he is determined to prove that all of the promise surrounding him as a hyped prospect five years ago was more than just baby fat. He says he is willing to fight anyone.

His Top Rank promoters have confirmed he was a possibility for Terence Crawford last April in the former lightweight champion’s first bout at 140 pounds. Instead, Crawford, the Boxing Writers’ 2014 Fighter of the Year, fought and stopped Puerto Rican Thomas Dulorme on April 18 for a WBO title that was vacant and not tagged with the interim garbage.

Crawford, ticketed for stardom, would have been interpreted as step too far for Benavidez. But he and his father were prepared for it.

“We signed off on it,’’ the senior Benavidez said. “Then, Top Rank got back to us and told us they had decided to go with Dulorme. Hey, Crawford would have been very tough, no doubt. But no matter what happened, my son would have learned a lot.’’

The son says he would have done more than that.

“I’d have beat him,’’ Benavidez Jr. said. “I’m bigger than he is. But that’s OK. It’ll happen someday. There’s still plenty of time.’’
Still plenty of birthdays.