Jose Benavidez Sr. says he was surprised that Dmitry Bivol dropped his WBC light heavyweight belt because he didn’t think he would do that to swerve his mandatory David Benavidez.
Jose Sr. still hopes that the winner or loser of the Bivol vs. Artur Beterbiev trilogy will fight newly crowned WBC 175-lb champion David Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs). They have nowhere else to go unless Turki wants to set up a fourth fight between them.
Smith or Yarde Next?
Benvidez Sr. says David could make a defense of his WBC title against one of these two:
– Callum Smith
– Anthony Yarde
Jose Sr. states that whoever the people want to see ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez face next between those two, he’ll do it. Yarde (26-3, 24 KOs) has a fight already scheduled for April 26th against Lyndon Arthur in London. So, he may not be ready to challenge Benavidez for his WBC title in the summer.
WBO interim champion Callum Smith (31-2, 22 KOs) is in a position to challenge the winner of the Bivol-Beterbiev 3 fight. So, he’s not likely to agree to fight Benavidez. Even if he wanted to, his promoter, Eddie Hearn, may advise him to wait for the more lucrative fight against Bivol or Beterbiev.
“He looked impressive, really good. We were there. We watched him. He’s one of them, I believe, and Anthony Yarde,” said Jose Benavidez Sr. to MillCity Boxing about who David Benavidez could make his first title defense of his WBC light welterweight against in the summer. “It’s a surprise. I didn’t think Bivol was going to leave the belt like that.”
Smith’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, might be reluctant to let him fight Benavidez for his WBC belt if he thinks there’s a chance that he can fight Bivol or Beterbiev. There’s potentially more money for Callum fighting the Bivol-Beterbiev 3 winner or loser than there is against Benavidez.
Waiting on the Winner
“We wanted to fight Bivol, and then the plan was to fight Zurdo Ramirez. Let them [Artur Beterbiev and Bivol] do the trilogy, and we’ll fight the winner or loser. In the meantime, these other two fights [Smith and Yarde] are hard. There are not easy fights. Now, we got to focus on what’s in front of us and then focus on the next fight,” said Benavidez Sr.
It’s going to be up to the Saudis if they want to let Benavidez get a shot at the winner of the loser of the Beterbiev vs. Bivol 3 trilogy fight. They got to know that neither of these aging fighters would match up well with him. We saw that Beterbiev has lost a lot from his game in his last fight against Bivol, and it would be worse for him if he fought Benavidez.
“I believe David [Benavidez] is on another level [than Callum Smith]. Whoever people want us to fight, we’ll fight. Everyone thought the other guy [Joshua Buatsi] was going to win [against Callum on February 22nd]. It’s a tough fight. We’ll fight him, and if they want to see the fight with Anthony Yarde, we’ll fight him too.
“We could fight him at 168, 175, or cruiserweight,” said Jose Sr. about David Benavidez being willing to fight Canelo Alvarez at any weight. “With David, he [Canelo] makes every excuse there is. ‘$200 million, doesn’t bring anything to the table; he’s not a champion. I don’t know what he’s going to come up with next.”
Last Updated on 04/08/2025
2025-04-09 02:46:23
