David Benavidez says he’s confident that he’ll beat undisputed light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol when he gets a chance to challenge him for his titles. Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) states that Bivol (24-1, 12 KOs) may take the trilogy with former four-belt champion Artur Beterbiev next rather than fighting him. However, he says he’s open to fighting on their undercard to “help bring more attention to the card.”
Undercard Play
It would be a good idea to have Benavidez on the Bivol-Beterbiev 3 undercard, as that would help create more interest from fans that have grown tired of seeing these two fight. Many U.S. boxing fans would like to see ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez get his shot because he earned it with his recent victory over WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion David Morrell on February 1st.
Benavidez feels the success that he had sparring with Bivol. Those sparring sessions obviously happened years ago, but Bivol’s Eastern European fighting style has stayed the same all these years. He’s not changed, and still struggles when he’s under a full assault without let up. Beterbiev would have beaten Bivol in their rematch on February 7th if he’d continued to attack all out, like he was doing from rounds three through six.
The difference with Benavidez is he WON’T tire. He’ll keep attacking Bivol relentlessly like Beterbiev was doing in the first half of their rematch, but he’ll continue the entire match. Bivol’s chances of surviving that kind of constant attack from Benavidez are slim. He’ll get knocked out or his corner will throw in the towel.
“I’ll Beat Him”
“We sparred a lot. It was a good sparring session. With these top tier fighters, they’re able to adapt to anything. So, I would figure some of his stuff out, and he’d adapt to that and he’d do some stuff to me, and I’d adapt to that,” said David Benavidez to Fighthype about his sparring sessions with Dmitry Bivol.
Benavidez adds that he had figured Bivol out by the fourth round of their sparring and that he was close to going down after he “lit him up with a 15-20 punch burst of punches. Those were the same ones he was throwing at the Cuban Morrell, but he was younger, stronger, and more capable of taking those punches than Bivol.
“There were times that I got the best of him. So, that’s how I know I’d beat him,” said Benavidez about Bivol. “I’m not going to go in there too confident. I definitely have confidence in myself that I would beat him.
“I talked to Turki Alalshikh. They [Bivol and Artur Beterbiev] want to do the third fight, but I’ve also got the #1 spot. We’re able to control a lot of stuff. We’re able to negotiate now. If they pay me what I want to be paid, I don’t mind fighting on the undercard, especially if it’s going to bring more attention to the card,” said Benavidez.
Last Updated on 03/03/2025
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