The WBC kept David Benavidez waiting once before, never enforcing his mandatory shot at super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
The sanctioning body says it won’t make Benavidez wait for his chance at the undisputed light heavyweight championship.
The other sanctioning bodies, however, may play into consideration.
“Dmitry Bivol must fight David Benavidez next,” the WBC said in a division-by-division update about all of its titleholders.
Bivol won a majority decision in his rematch with Artur Beterbiev on February 22, capturing all four major world titles. Benavidez, 30-0 (24 KOs), moved up to 175lbs last year, defeating Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the interim WBC title. He then outpointed David Morrell on February 1 to add the WBA’s secondary “regular” title, doubling his leverage in the weight class. Both belts put him in line as the mandatory challenger.
However, when world titles are unified, the sanctioning bodies agree on an order in which their mandatory challengers are due. And that order, according to boxing reporter Darshan Desai of Uncrowned, would see Michael Eifert and Callum Smith land their shots first.
Eifert is the much-criticized IBF mandatory challenger. The 13-1 fighter has not beaten anyone of note but topped the faded Jean Pascal in March 2023 in an IBF elimination bout.
The IBF had ordered Beterbiev – after his victory over Bivol in their first fight in October – to take on Eifert. But Eifert took a step-aside deal that allowed Beterbiev-Bivol II to go forward, according to boxing reporter Dan Rafael.
Smith seized the interim WBO title from Joshua Buatsi on the Beterbiev-Bivol II undercard.
Of course, there are a couple of factors that could influence what direction Bivol goes next.
Both Beterbiev-Bivol bouts were paid for by boxing financier Turki Alalshikh. Sanctioning bodies tend to make their decisions based on money. So do fighters and their promoters. Whatever fight Alalshikh wants next could be what comes next – be it a rubber match with Bivol and Beterbiev, or a bout between Bivol and Benavidez, who flew to Riyadh for the February 22 card.
Bivol could also choose to vacate the IBF or WBO belts were he to decide that he prefers to face someone next other than Eifert or Smith.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.