{"id":737903,"date":"2026-08-14T15:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T15:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/737903\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T15:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T15:54:07","slug":"world-champion-faces-being-stripped-if-he-doesnt-fight-david-benavidez-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/737903\/","title":{"rendered":"World champion faces being stripped if he doesn’t fight David Benavidez next"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Benavidez<\/a> has the full support of WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman as he looks to further establish himself in the cruiserweight division.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old made his 200lb debut in May, becoming a three-division world champion by dethroning Gilberto Ramirez with an emphatic sixth-round stoppage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In doing so, Benavidez claimed the WBO and WBA titles while also retaining his WBC light-heavyweight strap, so as to afford himself the option of moving back down to 175lbs.<\/p>\n

Since then, though, it would seem that the American has decided to remain at cruiserweight, having successfully lobbied the WBC to position him as its mandatory challenger.<\/p>\n

WBC champion Noel Mikaelian, meanwhile, was already rumoured to be facing Jai Opetaia, who became Zuffa Boxing\u2019s cruiserweight titlist by unanimously outpointing Brandon Glanton earlier this year.<\/p>\n

But while their contest has now been announced for September 12<\/a>, featuring on the undercard of Ryan Garcia vs Conor Benn at Las Vegas\u2019 T-Mobile Arena, Mikaelian could soon be forced to relinquish his world title.<\/p>\n

This is because, according to BoxingScene<\/a>, Sulaiman has threatened to strip the 35-year-old of his belt unless he and promoter Don King agree to a fight with Benavidez.<\/p>\n

From an outside perspective, it seems the Benavidez showdown is becoming increasingly unlikely, given that Mikaelian has reportedly signed to face Opetaia, a former IBF champion, and is attempting to distance himself from the notorious King.<\/p>\n

Benavidez, however, is set to secure his three-belt unification match regardless, potentially with WBC \u2018interim\u2019 champion Michal Cieslak standing in the opposite corner.<\/p>\n

The Polish veteran claimed his secondary title against Jean Pascal, who he stopped in four rounds, but has not fought since their cruiserweight contest in June 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Benavidez has the full support of WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman as he looks to further establish himself…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-737903","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\/737903","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=737903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}