David Benavidez drops another world title as fight for vacant belt confirmed

Kerr Ferguson

David Benavidez drops another world title as fight for vacant belt confirmed
Image credit: Getty

David Benavidez has made his future weight plans clear by dropping his remaining light-heavyweight world title.

The 29-year-old star moved up from super-middleweight, where he had previously been champion on two occasions, in 2024 due to frustrations over not being able to land a fight with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, despite being mandatory challenger.

He beat Oleksandr Gvozdyk in June of that year for the WBC interim belt in his first fight at 175lbs, and continued his undefeated streak with a win over David Morrell eight months later.

Benavidez was then ordered to face champion Dmitry Bivol, but the Russian opted to vacate the belt rather than take the fight. ‘El Monstro’ was therefore upgraded from interim to full champion, and made one defence – a seventh-round stoppage of Anthony Yarde.

An opportunity to move up in weight once more presented itself this year, and Benavidez grabbed it with both hands. He became the first man to stop Gilberto Ramirez to win the WBA and WBO cruiserweight belts in May in one of the most impressive performances of his career so far.

Despite previously outlining a plan to drop back down to light-heavyweight to face the division’s standouts, Bivol and Artur Beterbiev, Benavidez recently revealed that he felt so comfortable at 200lbs that he will not be returning to 175. In fact, he is increasingly teasing a heavyweight move.

Given that he will face Mikael Cieslak this December for the WBC belt in that division, he has finally made the decision to drop the sanctioning body’s light-heavyweight belt. This follows the same decision with the WBA regular belt, which he also held at light-heavyweight

The vacant WBC title will now be on the line for the rematch between Joshua Buatsi and Willy Hutchison – which was initially for the interim belt – allowing one of the Brits to capture world honours for the first time and keep the division moving. The fight takes place in Manchester on November 7.

As for Benavidez, a win over Cieslak will see him head towards a highly anticipated clash against two-time IBF champion Jai Opetaia. If that fight doesn’t happen, he says he will target Oleksandr Usyk at heavyweight.

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