{"id":654800,"date":"2026-06-23T22:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T22:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/654800\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T22:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T22:53:08","slug":"former-dmitry-bivol-opponent-predicts-david-benavidez-undisputed-fight-hell-pepper-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/654800\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Dmitry Bivol opponent predicts David Benavidez undisputed fight: “He’ll pepper him”"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of boxing\u2019s most in-demand clashes is an undisputed light-heavyweight title showdown between Dmitry Bivol<\/a> and David Benavidez<\/a>, and now one of Bivol\u2019s most recent opponents has shared his thoughts on the proposed fight.<\/p>\n

Bivol made his ring return at the end of May, ended 15 months of inactivity by outpointing Michael Eifert in his first fight on Russian soil since 2021.<\/p>\n

Not that his immediate mandatory obligation has been ticked off, fans are keen to see the unified champion attempt to become the division\u2019s third two-time undisputed ruler.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Bivol to join Maxie Rosenbloom and Bob Foster in that elite club, the man currently in his way is Benavidez, who holds the WBC light-heavyweight world title.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Mexican Monster\u2019 has since moved up to cruiserweight and it remains to be seen if he will be stripped of, or vacate, his belt at 175lbs, or if he will indeed move back down to face Bivol.<\/p>\n

Speaking to BoxingScene<\/a>, Lyndon Arthur, who lost out to Bivol back in 2023<\/a>, said that the Russian would \u2018pepper\u2019 Benavidez if he is fully fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Bivol peppers him. As long as he\u2019s the same Bivol that he was and has been, I think he peppers him,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBivol is too tricky. He loves boxing too much. He flows so fluently when he throws his punches. Benavidez is an animal, let me not take that away from him. I\u2019m just a fan of Bivol.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whilst Benavidez is also keen for the fight, the 29-year-old looks set to remain at 200lbs for the time being, with an alternate title unification opportunity on the horizon.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of boxing\u2019s most in-demand clashes is an undisputed light-heavyweight title showdown between Dmitry Bivol and David Benavidez,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-654800","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\/654800","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=654800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}