{"id":745863,"date":"2026-06-19T03:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/745863\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T03:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:37:15","slug":"david-benavidez-seeks-to-be-the-first-man-to-ko-fellow-champion-as-legacy-fight-being-finalised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/745863\/","title":{"rendered":"David Benavidez seeks to be the first man to KO fellow champion as &#8216;legacy&#8217; fight being finalised"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When David Benavidez announced a move up to the cruiserweight division, he had said he would return to light-heavyweight and defend his WBC title soon after, but a stellar performance has made it clear he can stick at 200lbs.<\/p>\n<p>Having held titles at both super-middleweight and light-heavyweight, Benavidez sought to join Badou Jack as the only man to have reigned in all three of those divisions, taking on WBA and WBO unified champion Gilberto \u2018Zurdo\u2019 Ramirez in a daring title bid.<\/p>\n<p>Come fight night, \u2018The Mexican Monster\u2019 showed that not only does his power translate to the cruiserweight division, but his speed does too, dominating the affair to produce an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/boxing\/news\/12183\/13539605\/david-benavidez-calls-out-canelo-alvarez-after-destroying-gilberto-zurdo-ramirez-to-capture-the-wba-and-wbo-cruiserweight-titles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">emphatic sixth-round stoppage win<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ever since, fans have been left debating whether Benavidez should return to light-heavyweight and take on pound-for-pound rivals, Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev, or remain in the cruiserweight division \u2013 which could turn out to be his optimal weight.<\/p>\n<p>It seems as though the 29-year-old has now made up his mind, at least for the foreseeable, with reports suggesting that the Phoenix-born star is now finalising talks for a three-belt unification with WBC cruiserweight world champion Noel Mikaelian, thus opting to remain at cruiserweight.<\/p>\n<p>A two-time champion, Mikaelian reclaimed his WBC world title when he avenged a controversial defeat to Jack last year. The Armenian-German has never been stopped and is the only other current world champion in the cruiserweight division, after the <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/ibf-decision-on-stripping-opetaia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">IBF stripped Jai Opetaia of their title earlier this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Opetaia has been another opponent who fans are desperate for Benavidez to take on, but speaking with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boxingscene.com\/articles\/david-benavidez-noel-mikaelian-closing-in-on-cruiserweight-unification\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Boxing Scene<\/a>, Benavidez\u2019s manager Sampson Lewkowicz explained the decision to pursue Mikaelian instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not fighting for trophies. We want titles. We want the legacy for Benavidez, Opetaia has nothing [for us] besides making a good fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lewkowicz also confirmed that a deal \u2018is expected to be reached shortly\u2019 following talks with Don King, promoter of Mikaelian, yesterday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When David Benavidez announced a move up to the cruiserweight division, he had said he would return to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-745863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}