{"id":799855,"date":"2026-10-12T05:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T05:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/799855\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T05:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T05:20:08","slug":"david-benavidez-targeting-cruiserweight-fight-against-former-light-heavyweight-champion-i-think-hes-moving-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/799855\/","title":{"rendered":"David Benavidez targeting cruiserweight fight against former light heavyweight champion: “I think he’s moving up”"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Benavidez<\/a> has confirmed his light-heavyweight days are a thing of the past, but ultimately believes his most meaningful fights can be made at 200lbs.<\/p>\n

The Mexican-American made his cruiserweight debut in May, becoming a three-division world champion by dethroning Gilberto Ramirez with a vicious sixth-round finish<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In doing so, he claimed the WBO and WBA titles while maintaining his championship status at 175lbs, only to vacate his WBC belt<\/a> earlier this week and allow the winner of Joshua Buatsi vs Willy Hutchinson \u2013 previously announced as an \u2018interim\u2019 title fight \u2013 to be crowned a world champion on November 7.<\/p>\n

As for his next assignment, Benavidez is expected to face WBC cruiserweight champion Michal Cieslak on December 5, before pursuing a Cinco de Mayo weekend showdown with Jai Opetaia in 2027.<\/p>\n

A move up to heavyweight could then become realistic but, before that, the 29-year-old would like to square off with former undisputed light-heavyweight king Artur Beterbiev.<\/p>\n

The Russian has not fought since February 2025, when he lost his four major titles to Dmitry Bivol after winning their first encounter by the same majority-decision margins.<\/p>\n

But despite the 41-year-old\u2019s long layoff, Benavidez has told Inside The Ring<\/a> that he would be keen to face Beterbiev at 200lbs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe heavyweight division is definitely a division I\u2019ve got my eyes on. [But] we\u2019ve got two great fights at cruiserweight before we get up there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got Jai Opetaia, then I think Beterbiev is going to come up to cruiserweight.\u201d<\/p>\n

While not naming Bivol on this occasion, Benavidez has previously expressed an interest in facing the former undisputed champion and, surely, would be willing to do so at 200lbs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Benavidez has confirmed his light-heavyweight days are a thing of the past, but ultimately believes his most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-799855","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\/799855","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=799855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}