{"id":623723,"date":"2026-04-23T17:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T17:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/623723\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T17:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T17:20:12","slug":"fans-question-benavidez-over-beterbiev-callout-at-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/623723\/","title":{"rendered":"Fans Question Benavidez Over Beterbiev Callout At 40"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxingnews24.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add EBoxing News 24as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqLAgKIiZDQklTRmdnTWFoSUtFR0p2ZUdsdVoyNWxkM015TkM1amIyMG9BQVAB?ceid=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow Boxing News 24 on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe one that gets me the most excited is probably Beterbiev,\u201d Benavidez said on the Ariel Helwani show. \u201cBeterbiev has been the boogeyman for a long time, so for me, being the monster, I got to go in there and take the boogeyman out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What makes this look bad is that in the same interview, Benavidez dismissed a prime, dangerous champion like Jai Opetaia due to a lack of belts, while simultaneously chasing a 41-year-old Artur Beterbiev, who is also currently beltless.<\/p>\n<p>Benavidez said in the interview that Opetaia is \u201ctwo years away\u201d because he was stripped of his IBF cruiserweight title.<\/p>\n<p>Artur Beterbiev lost his undisputed status and all four major belts to Dmitry Bivol in their February 2025 rematch. By Benavidez\u2019s own \u201cbelt logic,\u201d Beterbiev should be off the table, yet he remains the \u201cMonster\u2019s\u201d primary target at light heavyweight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeterbiev is 50 years old. Cokavidez should\u2019ve fought him instead of fighting Zurdo. This dude is a joke, all he does is talk,\u201d a user on X Malevo posted.<\/p>\n<p>Another user, umar ssenoga, wrote: \u201cBeterbiev is old now. Bivol or Jai Opetaia, those the fights that make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to argue with the fans on X when the math doesn\u2019t add up. If he wants the \u201cMonster\u201d label to mean something, he probably has to stop worrying about which sanctioning body belt is on the line and start fighting the guys people are actually afraid of.<\/p>\n<p>If Benavidez is the \u201cMexican Monster\u201d in his prime, people want to see him hunting the alpha predators, not legends whose clocks are winding down.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"182\" data-end=\"497\">Dan Ambrose is a boxing journalist at Boxing News 24, recognized for his direct analysis and extensive coverage of the global fight landscape. His reporting focuses on major bouts, divisional developments, and the sport\u2019s most discussed storylines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe one that gets me the most excited is probably Beterbiev,\u201d Benavidez said on the Ariel Helwani show.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-623723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623723","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=623723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}