{"id":800591,"date":"2026-10-12T21:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T21:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/800591\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T21:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T21:50:08","slug":"former-light-heavyweight-champion-wants-to-face-david-benavidez-at-cruiserweight-well-give-it-to-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/800591\/","title":{"rendered":"Former light heavyweight champion wants to face David Benavidez at cruiserweight: &#8220;We&#8217;ll give it to him&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/david-benavidez\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David Benavidez<\/a> looks to become a three-belt cruiserweight world champion in December, but whilst many fans hope to see him face Jai Opetaia in the fight that follows, there is another world champion whom \u2018The Mexican Monster\u2019 could potentially meet in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>An official announcement is expected imminently for a December 5 showdown between Benavidez and WBC cruiserweight champion Michael Cieslak \u2013 with <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/new-cruiser-champ-benavidez-fight\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Opetaia mandated to take on the victor of that contest<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, another Benavidez target, Dmitry Bivol, is poised to take on Callum Smith on December 12 and then partake in a rubber match with Artur Beterbiev in Russia in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>However, speaking with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@insideringshow\/video\/7695116633773296910?is_from_webapp=1&amp;sender_device=pc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Inside The Ring<\/a>, Benavidez revealed that Beterbiev has reached out to his team for a shot at cruiserweight honours, before confirming that he will give the 41-year-old Canadian-Russian exactly \u2018what he wants\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeterbiev has definitely reached out to our team and he has been actively trying to make that fight. So, we are going to give him exactly what he wants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI respect Beterbiev, he is like 45 years old so the fact that he is calling me out is why I have a lot of respect for him!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is a great fight for the public.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beterbiev hasn\u2019t fought since he came up short in his undisputed light heavyweight title rematch with Bivol in February 2025, and could now look to move up to 200lbs in a bid to get active once again.<\/p>\n<p>As for Opetaia, his mandatory position could be negated if <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/cdx82vdn5lno\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">his lawsuit against the IBF<\/a> is successful and he is reinstated as their world champion, or if the winner of Benavidez-Cieslak decides to vacate the WBC world title during the aftermath.<\/p>\n<p>However, should the Aussie be reinstated as a three-time IBF cruiserweight world champion, Benavidez would presumably still pursue the fight in a bid to fulfil his dream of becoming undisputed at cruiserweight.<\/p>\n<p>                                            <script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Benavidez looks to become a three-belt cruiserweight world champion in December, but whilst many fans hope to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-800591","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\/800591","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=800591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}