Saudi promoter His Excellency Turki Alalshikh has big plans for a mega-fight in December between David Benavidez and the eventual Winner of the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol fight.
IBF/WBC/WBO light heavyweight champion Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) and WBA champ Bivol (22-0, 11 KOs) meet on June 1st for the undisputed 175-lb championship in a loaded card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
They have a rematch clause that Saudi promoter Turki Alalshikh will need to deal with for ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs) to face the winner of their June fight.
According to reports, His Excellency Alalshikh feels that putting a fight together between Benavidez and the Beterbiev vs. Bivol victor is more realistic than attempting to negotiate a clash involving Canelo Alvarez and the ‘Mexican Monster.’ Canelo asked for $150-200 million for a fight against Benavidez.
That demand may have permanently turned the Saudis off as Gervonta Davis overreached by demanding two Ferraris from them to get the ball rolling for a fight against Devin Haney.
Benavidez, 27, will still need to win his WBC 175-lb title eliminator against Oleksandr Gvozyk to have the opportunity to fight in the Beterbiev-Bivol contest, and that might not be easy.
Gvozyk, 36, is a former WBC light heavyweight champion Who can punch. He’s arguably better than anyone Benavidez has fought in his 11-year professional career. However, it’s impossible to know how Benavidez will perform taking on Gvozdyk because he’s not been hit hard by opposition his size during his long professional career.
Assuming Benavidez passes that test against Gvozdyk, he matches up better against the pure boxer Bivol (22-0, 11 KOs) than he does against Beterbiev, who will take advantage of his high-volume offense to land big shots that could prove too much for him.
Benavidez has sparred with Bivol before, and he supposedly got the better of him. That was sparring, though, and it was many years ago. It might be a different story in a real fight without headgear and with lighter gloves. Benavidez isn’t guaranteed to win that fight, which would spoil his goal of fighting Canelo Alvarez once and for all.