The WBC has ordered undisputed light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol to begin negotiations to defend against his mandatory David Benavidez next.
Step Aside?
JuliusJulianis reports that if Bivol chooses to fight a trilogy match with Artur Beterbiev, he can negotiate a step aside deal with Benavidez, or vacate his WBC title. Depending on how much ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) would want, a step aside deal would be the logical move.
Bivol will probably drop the WBC title if Benavidez forces the issue and won’t agree. It’s a bad matchup for the 34-year-old Bivol, and he’d likely rather fight the slow 40-year-old Artur Beterbiev. Against him, Bivol can use his hand and foot speed to win another decision. He can’t do that against Benavidez. If he loses to him, the trilogy match against Beterbiev would be worthless.
Turki Alalshikh wants to see the trilogy between Beterbiev and Bivol happen. Fans are for the most part burned out on seeing these two. They’ve seen enough for their two previous fights to last them a lifetime, and they want someone else to get a shot.
If Turki is puts the fans first, he’ll put off the Bivol-Beterniev trilogy, and allow Benavidez to get his shot at the four belts. It’s bad for the sport to have three consecutive fights between the same two fighters, especially when one of them is a mover like Bivol. It would be entertaining if Bivol’s opponent was someone like Benavidez, who could cut off the ring and put some heat on him. Artur Beterbiev, 40, is too slow of foot to do that, and he gets tired.
WBC interim champion and mandatory Benavidez has earned the right to fight for the belt from his recent wins against WBA ‘regular’ champ David Morrell and Oleksandr Gvozdyk.
“And Mauricio Sulaiman has said that Bivol has to defend the WBC belt against Benavidez and that they have until April 8 to negotiate. I add, if Bivol and Beterbiev want to do a trilogy and reach an agreement with Benavidez, this mandatory would be postponed and if not, Bivol can vacate the WBC belt,” said JuliusJulianis on X
