David Benavidez is a serious threat inside the boxing ring.
Benavidez is once again a world champion in his own right, having been elevated to WBC light heavyweight champion earlier this month.
‘The Mexican Monster’ had been hoping for an undisputed title showdown with Dmitry Bivol, but Bivol opted to vacant his WBC belt and lose his undisputed status in order to have a trilogy fight with Artur Beterbiev, rather than take on Benavidez.
Benavidez first gained prominence in the sport when as a 15-year-old he became the main sparring partner for former middleweight king Gennady Golovkin.
It may be one of those sparring stories that some feel is the reason why Bivol opted not to face Benavidez, after ‘The Mexican Monster’ revealed that he once ‘lit up’ the Russian during a spar.
“I almost dropped him, I’m not lying. A lot of people saw the sparring. The last 20 seconds I lit his ass up with about 15-20 shots. When the round ended they said they didn’t want to spar anymore.
“People say that sparring is sparring, but the elite know that if you can touch someone in sparring, in the fight it’s the exact same thing, you’ll probably do it even worse.
“When I sparred Bivol I was 21, so imagine now I have more strength, more power. more experience, that’s why I have so much more experience.”
With the fight against Bivol not happening, Benavidez is currently on the lookout for his next opponent and his first world title defence at 175lbs, and he is reportedly in talks to face a former Canelo Alvarez rival.
