Final Exam: Benavidez faces one in fight to graduate to world class

By Norm Frauenheim

LAS VEGAS – For better or worse, Jose Benavidez Jr.‘s time as a prospect is about to end. It’s his choice. Nobody else’s.

The 22-year-old Benavidez listened to alternate possibilities from Top Rank and his father, yet in the end the 22-year-old decided to take the training wheels off his career for a tough, grown-up test against veteran junior-welterweight Mauricio Herrera Saturday night at The Cosmopolitan in an HBO-televised bout for an interim WBA belt.

Nothing is more interim than a prospect. A moth has a longer shelf life. But a few interim steps were still possible for Benavidez, who signed with Top Rank not long after he won a national Golden Gloves title as a 17-year-old prodigy in 2008.

“I have a lot to prove here,’’ Benavidez said Wednesday during a media workout at the Top Rank Gym. “Everybody says he going to beat me, that he has more experience. But I’m ready to show everybody that I belong here, belong at this level.’’

By any yardstick, however, it’s a big leap. Benavidez (21-0, 15 KOs) has never gone beyond eight rounds. Saturday night’s bout is scheduled for 12, a distance that Herrera (21-4, 7 KOs) knows well. He’s been there in each of his last two fights, winning a majority decision over Johan Perez in July and losing a very debatable one in March to 140-pound champion Danny Garcia in Puerto Rico.

Benavidez could have taken an easier path. He was offered a 10-round bout at a catch weight against the Golden Boy-promoted Herrera.

“Yeah, we were going to fight a 10-rounder at 141, 142,’’ said Benavidez, who will get his first world-class test on a card featured by Timothy Bradley-versus-Diego Chaves. “”We might as well go down two pounds and fight for the title. That’s what I’ve really wanted.’’

Benavidez’ bold confidence is an expression of a maturing fighter and perhaps one who has regained confidence in a problematic right hand that sidelined him a couple of years ago. He underwent surgery to have a bone spur removed from his right wrist a couple of years ago. For at least a couple of fights, the unbeaten he was virtually a one-handed fighter. But that one hand happens to be at the point of a jab as good as any. It allowed him to survive a near knockout in the eighth round of a 2012 bout for a unanimous decision over a tough Pavel Miranda in Carson, Calif.

It’s a jab that figures to score against a tough and resilient Herrera, too. In a 10 rounder, that could have added up to a pivotal difference on the scorecards. But if it goes another two rounds?

“I’ve always trained to go 12 rounds,’’ said Benavidez, who trained for six weeks at nearly 7,000-feet amid the Big Bear ski slopes east of Los Angeles.

The weight also has been no problem, said the lanky Benavidez, who fought as a welterweight in a first-round stoppage of Henry Auraad in Phoenix, his hometown, on July 26.

“I thought 140 might be, but, no, no problem at all,’’ Benavidez said.

Benavidez’ father and trainer, Jose Sr., said he presented all the options to his son.

“I told him about the 10-rounder and catch-weight, but he told me ‘Let’s’ go two more rounds and go after that title,’ ‘’ his dad said. “It’s a chance to fight on HBO. A chance to get known. He thinks it’s a good opportunity and so do I.’’

Benavidez has been at the edge of world-class waters for the last nine months. Top Rank wanted to put him in against Brandon Rios, but HBO balked because he had never gone 10 rounds, much less 12. Benavidez dad said that there was some talk of a fight with Jessie Vargas. But, Jose Sr. said, the Vargas camp said no.

Then, a second opportunity against Rios popped up when there were doubts about whether Chaves, of Argentina, could get a visa in time for the August 2 bout. Chaves got the visa. Got disqualified, too.

“But we wouldn’t have taken that fight anyway,’’ the senior Benavidez said. “HBO called and asked if we were interested. I told them no, because it would have been just one week between fights.’’

But now, father and son say, is the right time.

From Herrera’s perspective, it’s lesson time. During his media session Wednesday, Herrera promised to take Benavidez to school.

“Yeah, he’s been doing a lot talking, saying he wants to make statement and all that,’’ Benavidez said. “But it’s not like I haven’t sparred with great fighters. I sparred with Manny Pacquiao, Amir Khan and Shane Mosley. When I was 15, I sparred with Bradley.

“We’ll see, we’ll see who schools who.’’

Who graduates, too.