{"id":680609,"date":"2026-07-08T15:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T15:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/680609\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T15:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T15:34:08","slug":"david-benavidez-says-just-one-fighter-stands-in-the-way-of-proving-hes-the-best-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/680609\/","title":{"rendered":"David Benavidez says just one fighter stands in the way of proving he’s the best in the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Benavidez<\/a> has named one potential opponent who, in his mind, would solidify him as the \u201cbest fighter in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Mexican Monster\u2019 comes off arguably the most impressive performance of 2026 thus far, stopping Gilberto Ramirez<\/a> with a vicious sixth-round onslaught in May.<\/p>\n

In doing so, Benavidez became a three-division world champion in his first outing at 200lbs, where he now holds the WBO and WBA titles.<\/p>\n

Since then, the 29-year-old has become the mandatory challenger to WBC champion Noel Mikaelian, who reclaimed his title by unanimously outpointing Badou Jack in December.<\/p>\n

While not the most mouth-watering opponent, Mikaelian nonetheless seems a likely option for Benavidez\u2019s next outing<\/a>, which represents the last fight on his current promotional deal with Al Haymon\u2019s PBC.<\/p>\n

The Mexican-American then plans to renegotiate his contract and chase a more significant challenge at 175lbs, where he still holds the WBC title.<\/p>\n

This could arrive in the form of an undisputed clash with Dmitry Bivol<\/a>, who has been ordered to defend his WBO title against mandatory challenger Callum Smith.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, though, Benavidez has told Luis Parra<\/a> that he would be eager to secure a career-defining opportunity against Artur Beterbiev.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a fight I definitely want for my career. Not to prove it to other people, but to prove it to myself that I really am the best fighter in the world. Because he\u2019s a strong fighter, a fighter with a lot of experience too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good thing is that now everybody is mentioning me [against] Beterbiev [and] Bivol. Those fights are going to happen, but after this [next] fight, once I sign a new contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beterbiev became the undisputed light-heavyweight king by defeating Bivol in 2024, only to lose their immediate rematch by the same majority-decision verdict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Benavidez has named one potential opponent who, in his mind, would solidify him as the \u201cbest fighter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-680609","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\/680609","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=680609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}