{"id":612171,"date":"2026-05-30T14:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T14:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/612171\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T14:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T14:37:08","slug":"david-benavidez-sets-sights-on-new-champion-opponent-as-he-is-approved-for-world-title-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/612171\/","title":{"rendered":"David Benavidez sets sights on new champion opponent as he is approved for world title shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Benavidez<\/a> could be set to alter his plans after a new world title opportunity was presented to the pound-for-pound star.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Mexican Monster\u2019 became a three-division world champion earlier this month, dethroning Gilberto Ramirez with a sixth-round stoppage in his first outing at 200lbs.<\/a><\/p>\n

While claiming the WBO and WBA cruiserweight titles, Benavidez still holds the WBC strap at 175lbs, affording him the option to collide with unified champion Dmitry Bivol.<\/p>\n

It would now seem, however, that the 29-year-old is targeting WBC cruiserweight champion Noel Mikaelian, who was reportedly finalising a deal to face Jai Opetaia.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old has not fought since his rematch with Badou Jack last December, when he exacted his revenge with a unanimous decision victory to claim the WBC belt.<\/p>\n

Mikaelian was subsequently granted the opportunity to make a voluntary title defence, but has now missed his six-month window in which to do so.<\/p>\n

As a result, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has responded by ordering a unification match between the Armenian and Benavidez via an official statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBenavidez visited Mexico and has his mind only on winning the WBC cruiserweight championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe WBC has received a letter from his promoter with the petition to mandate WBC cruiserweight champion Noel Mikaelian to make his first mandatory defence against WBC light-heavyweight champion David Benavidez.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe WBC Board has voted in favour to order cruiserweight champion Noel Mikaelian to fight David Benavidez.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move from the sanctioning body is notable in that it is extremely rare for a champion elsewhere in the division, in this case the unified WBA and WBO, to be mandatory for another belt. Benavidez also still holds the WBC light-heavyweight belt and has given no signals that he wants to vacate.<\/p>\n

If Mikaelian chooses to pursue a clash with Opetaia, the Zuffa Boxing champion at 200lbs, then he will be stripped of his WBC title.<\/p>\n

Benavidez, meanwhile, had seemingly been in talks for a potential showdown with Opetaia<\/a> as well, though this seems to have been abandoned in favour of the WBC title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Benavidez could be set to alter his plans after a new world title opportunity was presented to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-612171","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\/612171","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=612171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}