{"id":602366,"date":"2026-05-25T03:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T03:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/602366\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T03:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T03:23:07","slug":"david-benavidez-urged-to-stop-making-excuses-and-fight-to-prove-hes-the-worlds-best-cruiserweight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/602366\/","title":{"rendered":"David Benavidez urged to ‘stop making excuses’ and fight to prove he’s the world’s best cruiserweight"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Benavidez<\/a> has been accused of making \u201cexcuses\u201d by taking a \u201cdifferent path\u201d, seemingly distancing himself from the most significant fight at 200lbs.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Mexican Monster\u2019 made his cruiserweight debut earlier this month, becoming a three-division world champion by dethroning Gilberto Ramirez with a sixth-round finish.<\/a><\/p>\n

But despite claiming Ramirez\u2019s WBO and WBA titles, Benavidez has expressed an interest in moving back down to 175lbs, where he still holds the WBC strap, and facing unified champion Dmitry Bivol.<\/p>\n

This would be for the undisputed light-heavyweight crown, which Bivol claimed by edging a majority decision in his rematch with Artur Beterbiev<\/a> in February 2025.<\/p>\n

Before attempting to reclaim his WBC belt, though, Bivol must first defend two of his three major titles against mandatory challenger Michael Eifert on May 30.<\/p>\n

After that, Benavidez will almost certainly be targeting a clash with Bivol, despite cruiserweight rival Jai Opetaia accusing him of taking a \u201csmarter path\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Ring Magazine<\/a>, the former IBF champion insisted that he would be ready to face Benavidez, but only if the 29-year-old\u2019s team is willing to show the same enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat fight\u2019s easy to make on our side. I\u2019ve been ready\u2026 I just hear excuses. How bad do you [Benavidez] wanna fight?<\/p>\n

\u201cI hear he\u2019s gonna take a different path, and I think he\u2019s gonna to take a smarter path to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

While still regarded by many as the No.1 cruiserweight, Opetaia no longer has a world title with which to entice Benavidez. Instead, it means his potential showdown with Benavidez would not be a three-belt unification match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Benavidez has been accused of making \u201cexcuses\u201d by taking a \u201cdifferent path\u201d, seemingly distancing himself from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-602366","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\/602366","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=602366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}