There would be significant interest in matching him against unbeaten Ring and IBF champ Jai Opetaia if Benavidez beats Ramirez in a Prime Video pay-per-view main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The WBC light heavyweight champ mentioned moving up to heavyweight in the past, too, but Benavidez (31-0, 25 KOs) is determined to solidify his legacy in the 175-pound division before seriously considering those two options.

Benavidez, 29, reiterated his ambitious blueprint to defeat Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev during the newest episode of “Inside The Ring,” which premiered Monday on DAZN.

“There was already things in play that I wanted to accomplish in my own career,” Benavidez said. “And I’m moving slow. Let me get this fight first, and I hear a lotta people talking about heavyweight, but these are big guys. This is an extremely different type of power, so I’m not thinking about heavyweight anytime soon. If I think about heavyweight, maybe that’s like probably five, six years [from now]. But what I really wanted to do is become unified champion at 175 and a dominant champion there.”

“I’ve been telling you guys I wanna get Bivol and then Beterbiev, those are the two fights I want for myself and I know all the world of boxing wants to see. So right now, that I can make 175 comfortably, I feel like we gotta make that happen first. We got this fight, we’re gonna get these belts first and then we’re gonna go back down, then gonna come back up. Because like I said, I already had cards I wanted to play. I wanna take care of that first.”

Russia’s Bivol (24-1, 12 KOs) is expected to make a mandated defense of his IBF light heavyweight crown against German underdog Michael Eifert (13-1, 5 KOs) in his next bout, which is expected to be part of The Ring’s Oleksandr Usyk-Rico Verhoeven undercard May 23 at The Pyramids of Giza near Cairo, Egypt. Assuming he defeats Eifert, Bivol — who owns The Ring, WBA and WBO belts as well — and Beterbiev (21-1, 20 KOs) might fight a third time, which could alter Benavidez’s plan.

Temporarily, Phoenix’s Benavidez is fully focused on becoming champion in a third division versus Ramirez (48-1, 30 KOs), a former sparring partner he is listed by DraftKings as a 3-1 favorite to beat.

“I’m coming back to light heavyweight,” Benavidez said. “I don’t want anybody to get it wrong, that I’m staying at cruiserweight. Obviously, if good opportunities present itself, then we’ll stay here a little bit longer. Bivol, he’s gonna do a tuneup fight. And for me, instead of just waiting around and defending my title and get a regular fight, I thought it would be a good idea to go up and challenge ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez for his two titles.”