{"id":297556,"date":"2025-11-21T13:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T13:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/297556\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T13:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T13:25:12","slug":"benavidez-wont-rule-out-bivol-calls-him-more-of-a-man-of-his-word-than-canelo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/297556\/","title":{"rendered":"Benavidez Won\u2019t Rule Out Bivol, Calls Him \u2018More Of A Man Of His Word Than Canelo\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Benavidez <\/a>wants to believe Dmitry Bivol<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The WBC light heavyweight champ hopes his former sparring partner actually wants to fight him. Maybe it\u2019s wishful thinking because Benavidez realizes he needs Bivol to fully unify the 175-pound crowns.<\/p>\n

Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) admitted he got the same aggravating vibes when Bivol vacated the WBC belt that Canelo Alvarez gave up when the Mexican superstar avoided him. Because Bivol fought Artur Beterbiev twice, however, Benavidez is optimistic about getting the opportunity to take The Ring, IBF, WBA and WBO titles from the Russian champion once he recovers from back surgery.<\/a>
\u201cThis is kind of like what was going on with Canelo,\u201d Benavidez told The Ring.<\/a> \u201cBut I wouldn\u2019t rule it out. I think Dmitry Bivol is more of a man of his word than Canelo. If they mandate the fight again, then I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll happen. But I don\u2019t really wanna bash him too much because he did have back surgery and he did have two great fights with Artur Beterbiev. So, when he\u2019s ready to fight I\u2019m gonna be right here, waiting for him.\u201dPhoenix\u2019s Benavidez, who will defend his title against Anthony Yarde on Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia<\/a>, was elevated from interim champion because Bivol didn\u2019t want to fight him next. Bivol (24-1, 12 KOs) gave up his WBC belt seven months ago rather than making a mandated defense versus Benavidez, who won the interim title by unanimously outpointing Oleksandr Gvozdyk in June 2024 in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Benavidez envisions Bivol facing an opponent less dangerous than him when he returns next year. He hasn\u2019t fought since he beat Beterbiev by majority decision in their 12-round rematch February 22 in Riyadh.<\/p>\n

If Bivol basically takes a tune-up bout, Benavidez won\u2019t wait around for his belts.<\/p>\n

Benavidez, 28, would prefer to box Beterbiev (21-1, 20 KOs) after he beats Bivol. Assuming the heavily favored Benavidez beats Yarde in the main event of \u201cThe Ring IV: Night of the Champions\u201d card, he considers Callum Smith (31-2, 22 KOs), the WBO interim champ, and WBA\/WBO cruiserweight champ Gilberto Ramirez (48-1, 30 KOs) as the most appealing alternatives for his first fight of 2026.<\/p>\n

Benavidez is open to moving up to cruiserweight for one fight and returning to light heavyweight if he can\u2019t battle Bivol next.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good thing is for me is that we have a lotta options on the table,\u201d Benavidez said. \u201cWe have Beterbiev on the table. We have \u2018Zurdo\u2019 Ramirez on the table. So, it doesn\u2019t really matter to me. If he\u2019s gonna [fight someone else], I would rather fight the best Dmitry Bivol out there, as opposed to fighting a Dmitry Bivol that\u2019s still hurt. I don\u2019t want him to give excuses, like, \u2018Oh, I wasn\u2019t a hundred percent ready.\u2019 I wanna beat these fighters at their absolute best, and that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m gonna do.\u201d<\/p>\n

England\u2019s Yarde (27-3, 24 KOs) is The Ring\u2019s fourth-ranked light heavyweight<\/a>, two spots beneath Benavidez, who is ninth on The Ring\u2019s pound-for-pound list. <\/p>\n

The Ring IV: Night of the Champions takes place on Saturday, November 22 and will stream live on DAZN PPV from 3pm ET\/8pm GMT. <\/p>\n

Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Benavidez wants to believe Dmitry Bivol. The WBC light heavyweight champ hopes his former sparring partner actually…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,1151,1144,1150,1149,1142,711,1145,1146,1147,1148,1143,49,48,1156,1155,1138,1136,1137,1153,1139,1135,1157,1152,82,1154,1134,1141,1140],"class_list":{"0":"post-297556","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-community","10":"tag-boxing-fights","11":"tag-boxing-history","12":"tag-boxing-interviews","13":"tag-boxing-magazine","14":"tag-boxing-news","15":"tag-boxing-photos","16":"tag-boxing-rankings","17":"tag-boxing-results","18":"tag-boxing-schedule","19":"tag-boxing-videos","20":"tag-ca","21":"tag-canada","22":"tag-disqualification","23":"tag-draw","24":"tag-fight","25":"tag-fighter","26":"tag-fighter-news","27":"tag-knockout","28":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","29":"tag-ring","30":"tag-ring-magazine","31":"tag-split-decision","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-technical-knockout","34":"tag-the-ring","35":"tag-top-fighters","36":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}