David Benavidez will soon be light heavyweight champion of the world.
The Mexican-American has had just two fights in the division since moving up from super middleweight, where was previously a two-time titleholder.
At 175 pounds, Benavidez became WBC Interim champion when he defeated Oleksandr Gvozdyk by decision back in June of 2024. He built on that win with an impressive performance against David Morrell in February this year, adding the WBA Regular belt to his collection.
The 28-year-old was then mandated to face full WBC Champion Dmitry Bivol, who also holds the WBO, WBA and IBF titles. Bivol won all four belts in a rematch against Artur Beterbiev after falling short in their first encounter.
Though Bivol had initially said he was open to the fight, he has now officially vacated the WBC strap, presumably in favour of making the trilogy with Beterbiev, to skip the mandatory fight.
WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman had previously told Tha Boxing Voice exactly what would happen in this situation, and this is that Benavidez will be upgraded to full champion rather than fight another top contender for the vacant belt.
