{"id":578417,"date":"2026-05-11T17:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/578417\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T17:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:18:07","slug":"teofimo-lopez-names-the-only-man-who-can-compete-with-david-benavidez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/578417\/","title":{"rendered":"Teofimo Lopez names the only man who can compete with David Benavidez"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/teofimo-lopez\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Teofimo Lopez<\/a> has named the only man that he believes is capable of \u2018challenging\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/david-benavidez\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David Benavidez<\/a>, who remains undefeated following his triumph over Gilberto Ramirez.<\/p>\n<p><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#:~:text=Benavidez%20(32%2D0%2C%2026,Mobile%20Arena%20in%20Las%20Vegas.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">\u2018The Mexican Monster\u2019 dethroned Ramirez with a ruthless sixth-round stoppage<\/a> in his last outing, becoming a three-division world champion by collecting the WBO and WBA cruiserweight titles.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, many have expressed their interest in seeing Benavidez collide with former world cruiserweight champion <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/jai-opetaia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jai Opetaia<\/a>, or perhaps even <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/oleksandr-usyk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> at heavyweight.<\/p>\n<p>But while both of those matchups would undoubtedly capture his interest, it appears far more likely that the 29-year-old will enter an undisputed showdown with Dmitry Bivol.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/dmitry-bivol-talks-for-undisputed-fight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The pair have already held preliminary talks<\/a> to collide later this year, with Bivol expected to make a successful title defence against Michael Eifert on May 30.<\/p>\n<p>This represents his first outing since claiming all four major belts in February 2025, when he exacted his revenge over Artur Beterbiev with a majority decision victory.<\/p>\n<p>Bivol then decided to undergo back surgery, rather than make a mandatory defence of his WBC title, which is why Benavidez was subsequently elevated from \u2018interim\u2019 to full light-heavyweight champion.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to that, Benavidez had secured a hard-fought points victory over <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/david-morrell\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David Morrell<\/a>, which is partly why Lopez sees Bivol posing a worthy challenge to the high-volume puncher.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with several media outlets, including <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/W6lLmuQQl40?si=fVvBr_THciOOK1Qz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fight Hub TV<\/a>, Lopez explained how Bivol\u2019s style could make for an intriguing contest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only person that could probably challenge him would be Bivol\u2026 just because of the distance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid Morrell gave him a tough fight, and that was just from the range.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bivol is an expert when it comes to distance control and in-and-out movement, hence why Lopez views him as an appropriate challenge for Benavidez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teofimo Lopez has named the only man that he believes is capable of \u2018challenging\u2019 David Benavidez, who remains&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-578417","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\/578417","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=578417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}