The 29-year-old WBC lightweight heavyweight champion is temporarily leaving his throne to face WBA and WBO cruiserweight champion, Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez. Their May 2 clash at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas has Benavidez’s undivided attention.

Shortly after the two faced off for their press conference, Benavidez (31-0, 25 KOs) bumped into Jai Opetaia (29-0, 23 KOs), The Ring and IBF cruiserweight titlist. When the pair got up close, Benavidez shared a few words with the hard-hitting star.

“I have a lot of respect for you,” Benavidez told Opetaia. “You’re a great fighter. I definitely want to get a fight in with you in the future.”

When asked to go into detail on what else he told The Ring’s No. 1 ranked cruiserweight, Benavidez elaborated.

“I have a lot of respect for Opetaia, I got no bad words for him,” Benavidez told The Ring. “But I let him know that we’re definitely going to get that fight in the future. Seeing him in person made me want that fight even more. We got a lot of good things coming in the future.”

Their paths might cross eventually, but for now, they have business to attend to.

Benavidez, fresh off his seventh-round stoppage win over Anthony Yarde, is focused on beating Ramirez. Opetaia takes on Brandon Glanton this Saturday night at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas in his Zuffa Boxing debut. The winner of Opetaia vs. Glanton will be awarded the inaugural Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight title.

So while Benavidez would love to sit there and fantasize about how a match-up against Opetaia would play out, he doesn’t want to take his eyes off Ramirez’s titles.

“It’s gonna be a great fight,” Benavidez said during a recent press conference. “A great war. I’m gonna leave everything in the ring. I’m training really hard. I want to earn the fans respect.”