{"id":554070,"date":"2026-04-27T23:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T23:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/554070\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T23:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T23:07:07","slug":"david-benavidez-says-world-champion-is-avoiding-him-after-feeling-his-power-in-sparring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/554070\/","title":{"rendered":"David Benavidez says world champion is avoiding him after feeling his power in sparring"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/david-benavidez\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David Benavidez<\/a> believes one of the sport\u2019s flagship champions is actively avoiding him, claiming there have been \u201cmultiple opportunities\u201d to make the fight happen.<\/p>\n<p>The WBC light-heavyweight champion is widely considered to be a top 10 pound-for-pound operator, capable of significantly enhancing his legacy over the next few years.<\/p>\n<p>His immediate opportunity to do so will arrive on May 2, when Benavidez bids to become a three-division world champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/boxing\/story\/_\/id\/47592603\/sources-david-benavidez-fight-gilberto-ramirez-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">against WBO and WBA cruiserweight titlist Gilberto Ramirez.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Irrespective of the result this weekend, the 29-year-old has said he will move back down to 175lbs and pursue an undisputed showdown with Dmitry Bivol.<\/p>\n<p>The unified light-heavyweight champion is gearing up to defend his titles against mandatory challenger Michael Eifert, headlining a card at the UMMC Arena, Russia, on May 30.<\/p>\n<p>This represents his first outing since defeating Artur Beterbiev in their immediate rematch, which saw <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/dmitrii-bivol-claims-undisputed-crown-with-majority-decision-over-artur-beterbiev\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Bivol exact his revenge with a majority decision victory<\/a> in February 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Should he wish to become a two-time undisputed king, then the 35-year-old must ultimately face Benavidez, who insists he got the better of their sparring session around eight years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Back then, the pair had already shared numerous rounds, yet Benavidez has <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/arielhelwani\/status\/2047028860169159088?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">told Ariel Helwani<\/a> that Bivol came away from their final spar with far less confidence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey can say whatever they want\u2026 He\u2019s felt my power up close and personal. I felt his power up close and personal, too, but I got the better of that. I got the better of that last sparring session we had.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t let that get to my head because I know I have to come extremely prepared for him, but I feel like that [sparring session] kind of got stuck in his head.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve had multiple opportunities to make this fight happen, and it hasn\u2019t happened, so I think that speaks volumes on its own.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Benavidez was elevated from \u2018interim\u2019 to full WBC champion after Bivol vacated the belt last year, but this was largely because the Russian needed to undergo back surgery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Benavidez believes one of the sport\u2019s flagship champions is actively avoiding him, claiming there have been \u201cmultiple&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-554070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}