David Benavidez has no shortage of HUGE fights on his radar. In an exclusive interview with BoxingScene, Jose Benavidez Sr. makes it clear that David still wants the biggest names at 175lbs including Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev. Benavidez has previously said those are two fights he wants to make as he pursues more titles and major challenges. But there’s another name that could make things very interesting: Andy Ruiz Jr. Jose discusses the possibility of an all-Mexican showdown between Benavidez and the former heavyweight champion, along with David’s plans across multiple divisions. And with a potential Jai Opetaia showdown also building after the pair came face-to-face following Opetaia’s latest victory, Benavidez has some massive options ahead.
ProboxTV’s championship series is now on the ProBoxTV YouTube channel for $5/month.
Learn More
The absence of Golden Boy Promotions fight dates from DAZN’s upcoming schedule should not be mistaken as any sort of downtime for the company.
BoxingScene has confirmed that hard plans are in place for Golden Boy’s lineal and unified champions Oscar Collazo and Gabriela Fundora to return to the ring in early fall. Opponents are not yet finalized for either of the two, though the preference is to get both in the ring by September to leave room for a third 2025 fight for each champ.
“We’re working on something for Oscar Collazo,” Hall of Fame former six-division champ and Golden Boy chairman Oscar De La Hoya told BoxingScene. “He will fight either in Las Vegas or Florida. We really like the idea of him fighting in Florida; he can attract the huge Puerto Rican fan base.”
Puerto Rico’s Collazo, 12-0 (9 KOs), is the reigning lineal, Ring, WBA and WBO strawweight champion. The diminutive knockout artist is at a stage of his career where he is forced to wait between fights, after having lodged three wins in both 2023 and 2024 – five of which came with at least one major belt at stake.
Collazo, a 28-year-old southpaw, claimed the WBO 105lbs title in a May 2023 sixth-round stoppage of Melvin Jerusalem. Four successful defenses have followed, none of them bigger than his seventh-round knockout of Thammanoon Niyomtrong, who was unbeaten and the sport’s longest-reigning titlist at the time of their November 16 clash in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
A dominant showing by Collazo resulted in his unifying the WBA and WBO titles, along with his becoming the first-ever Ring strawweight champion. Collazo also filled a lineal 105lbs championship vacancy that dated back to 1999.
The feat took place two weeks after Fundora, 16-0 (8 KOs), became the first woman to fully unify all the major flyweight titles.
Fundora did so in style, courtesy of a seventh-round knockout of Gabriela Alaniza last November 2 in Las Vegas. The win saw Fundora, a 5ft 9ins southpaw from Coachella, California, retain her IBF title and add the WBA, WBC and WBO belts, along with claiming lineal and Ring championship status.
It also capped a three-win campaign for Fundora, who was universally recognized as the 2024 Women’s Fighter of the Year.
Just one fight each has taken place in 2025 for Collazo and Fundora.
Collazo extended his title reign with a fifth-round stoppage of Mexico’s Edwin Cano on March 29 in Cancun. The fight was owed to Cano as a concession for allowing Collazo to enter his two-belt unification clash with Niyomtrong.
Fundora’s lone fight on the year doubled as her first career main event. The charismatic 23-year-old lodged a seventh-round knockout of unbeaten mandatory challenger Marilyn Badillo atop an April 19 DAZN show from Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California.
So far, it has been a rare year in which Fundora has been less active than her older brother, WBC 154lbs titlist Sebastian Fundora, who has twice defended his title via knockout in his 2025 campaign.
“We really need Gabriela back in the ring, don’t we?” De La Hoya said. “She’s a very exciting fighter; she’s obviously the best flyweight in the world and among the best pound-for-pound in the sport. We’re working on her next fight and will have an announcement very soon.”
