David Benavidez Reveals He “Hurt” Dmitry Bivol in Sparring: “If You Can Touch Him There, You Can Touch Him in a Fight”

David Benavidez reminded the media today of how he hurt Dmitry Bivol during their last sparring session. He says he sparred the light heavyweight champion “a lot,” and had him hurt.

Benavidez Reminds Bivol of Sparring Pain

Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) states that he doesn’t see any difference between sparring and fighting. He says if he can hit someone in sparring, he can do it in a fight. Bivol (24-1, 12 KOs) is the one that Benavidez is targeting for his three belts so that he can become the undisputed light heavyweight champion.

“It is the same thing. If you can touch somebody in sparring, you can touch somebody in a fight,” said David Benavidez to Ring Champs, discussing the success he had sparring with Dmitry Bivol. “I sparred him a lot. I hurt him the last time we sparred. I was 22 years old.

“I Hurt Him”: The 2019 Sessions Revisited

The sparring occurred around 2019, when Benavidez was wiping out Anthony Dirrell and J’Leon Love, looking unstoppable. With the way he was already fighting back then, it’s understandable why Bivol had problems with him. He doesn’t handle pressure well, as we saw in his two fights with Artur Beterbiev. It must have been a nightmare for him to deal with Benavidez attacking him nonstop during the sparring sessions.

“He had way more experience than I, but I did with the experience that I had. Now, I’m smarter and I’ve become an all-around better fighter,” said Benavidez.

That sparring session might be one of the reasons that Bivol has been reluctant to fight Benavidez. I mean, he vacated his WBC title when ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez was his mandatory. The official reason was that he had the trilogy match with Artur Beterbiev that he was going to take.

Fear of the Mexican Monster?

That fight never happened, so it makes sense to conclude that Bivol wasn’t interested in fighting Benavidez and dealing with the combination punching that he’s known for.

Benavidez is still hoping a fight with Bivol will happen at some point, but it’s questionable whether it will. Bivol isn’t getting any younger. He turns 35 on December 18, 2025, and he’s coming off back surgery.

Dan Ambrose has written on boxing since 2011, cutting through hype with blunt ringside truth.