David Benavidez has officially thrown the towel into the ring as it pertains to the super middleweight division after deciding to move up to light-heavyweight, where he will ply his trade as the World Boxing Council (WBC) interim champion and mandatory challenger of the division. In the meantime, Canelo Alvarez stands unopposed in the super middleweight division as the most likely contender to potentially beat him no longer remains in his weight class.
According to the WBC’s president Mauricio Sulaiman, Sampson Lewkowicz, David Benavidez’s (29-0, 24 KO’s) promoter, handed the organization a letter earlier this week that confirmed Benavidez would move up to the light-heavyweight (175 lbs) division.
“The WBC has just received a letter from Sampson Lewkowicz, exclusive promoter of David Benavidez, confirming that David Benavidez will continue his career as a light-heavyweight. He is confirmed as WBC 175 [lbs] interim champion and is the mandatory contender for the winner of Beterbiev vs. Bivol.”
Benavidez has now also been designated as the WBC mandatory challenger alongside his interim champion status―which he acquired last month after defeating Ukrainian opponent Oleksandr Gvozdyk (20-2, 16 KO’s).
This mandatory contender position would have warranted Benavidez a match against its current holder, Canadian-Russian unified [WBC, WBO & IBF] champion Artur Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KO’s), had Beterbiev not been obligated to face Russian WBA champion Dmitry Bivol (23-0, 12 KO’s) in an undisputed unification bout.
While a match between the two Russian champions had been set for June 1st, it was postponed after Beterbiev suffered an injury. However, the match is heavily speculated to commence later this year, which requires Benavidez to wait for his opportunity against the winner of the undisputed match-up [as unification bouts trump mandatory/mandated bouts].
For David Benavidez, moving up might be the best course of action after spending several years as the WBC mandatory without the sanctioning body actually ordering a bout with Canelo Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KO’s). This became more prevalent this year after Mauricio Sulaiman asserted the WBC would not order a match between Benavidez and Alvarez―providing non-descript and vague reasoning for this decision that hinted at the WBC’s favoritism towards Alvarez.
Once the winner between Beterbiev and Bivol is determined, the WBC will inadvertently be regarded as hypocritical once it actually does order the winner of this match and Benavidez to face each other [provided Beterbiev and Bivol do not enter into a rematch].
As such an order had been left absent during Alvarez’s entire reign as the undisputed champion of the super middleweight (168 lbs) division, any mandate that will involve Benavidez in another division will prove the sanctioning body was devoted to protecting Alvarez, further epitomizing the corruption within the WBC.
