{"id":575175,"date":"2026-05-09T18:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T18:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/575175\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T18:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T18:34:08","slug":"tim-bradley-delivers-honest-verdict-on-david-benavidez-vs-dmitry-bivol-recipe-for-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/575175\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Bradley delivers honest verdict on David Benavidez vs Dmitry Bivol: “Recipe for disaster”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Timothy Bradley<\/a> has assessed the boxing IQ of David Benavidez<\/a> and Dmitry Bivol<\/a>, considering who has the superior ring intelligence ahead of their potential showdown.<\/p>\n

Both sides have held preliminary talks for their possible encounter later this year, which would see them square off for the undisputed light-heavyweight crown.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Benavidez has proposed they meet at a catchweight of 190lbs, allowing him to defend his WBO and WBA world cruiserweight titles.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old claimed these belts last Saturday, dethroning Gilberto Ramirez with a sixth-round finish<\/a> and, in turn, becoming a three-division world champion in his first outing at 200lbs.<\/p>\n

Bivol, too, boasts a win over Ramirez, which followed an equally dominant points victory over Canelo Alvarez that same year, in 2022.<\/p>\n

Since then, the Russian has claimed all four major belts at 175lbs, outpointing Artur Beterbiev by majority decision<\/a> in February 2025, after which he decided to undergo back surgery and vacate the WBC title, enabling Benavidez to be elevated from \u2018interim\u2019 to full champion.<\/p>\n

Having now recovered from his surgery, the 35-year-old will make a mandatory title defence against Michael Eifert on May 30.<\/p>\n

Regardless of his next performance, though, Hall of Famer Bradley has said on his YouTube channel<\/a> that he expects Bivol to cause Benavidez serious problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cBivol has the perfect style to beat him. I like me some David Benavidez \u2013 I can\u2019t wait \u2018til he fights again \u2013 but [fighting] Bivol is a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Benavidez has] got a high boxing IQ, too. But he\u2019s stubborn. Bivol isn\u2019t stubborn. Bivol is one of those guys that\u2019ll do the complete opposite [to] what you think he\u2019s gonna do.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll have a plan A and a plan B. When he fought Ramirez, he stepped to Ramirez. We thought he was going to box because Ramirez was so damn big.<\/p>\n

\u201cYa\u2019ll probably don\u2019t think Bivol would step to Benavidez \u2013 you\u2019ll be surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with Bivol\u2019s boxing brain, Bradley highlights his foot speed as a significant factor in a potential clash with Benavidez, who is known more for his hand speed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Timothy Bradley has assessed the boxing IQ of David Benavidez and Dmitry Bivol, considering who has the superior…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-575175","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\/575175","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=575175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}