Two-weight world boxing champion, David Benavidez, isn’t convinced a cruiserweight fighter will be able to secure undisputed status any time soon, and it’s seemingly because of a perception across combat sport that Zuffa Boxing has, wittingly or unwittingly, built itself an unapproachable island.
One of the top-10 pound-for-pound fighters in boxing, Benavidez has run a gauntlet, powering through Caleb Plant, Demetrious Andrade, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, and Anthony Yarde in brutal fashion, forced to do so as showdowns against premier fighters like Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, Dmitry Bivol, and Artur Beterbiev pass him by — now, at least.
Rather than fight tune-ups waiting for a shot that might not come, Benavidez fought beyond super middleweight to light heavyweight, sought the toughest remaining tests, and faces yet another May 2 when he jumps to cruiserweight to challenge Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez for his WBA.
Benavidez is insistent that he’s focused only on ‘Zurdo’ but yet talk persists about future plans and whether he could unify further titles should he beat Ramirez, and challenge somebody like Jai Opetaia — one of Zuffa Boxing’s marquee signings, outside of Britain’s feral slugger Conor Benn.
“It would have been easier to make that [Opetaia] fight happen but he’s with Zuffa and it seems like they’re at war in boxing and politics,” Benavidez told The Spit Bucket podcast this week.
“We’re going to sit back and see what happens,” he said. “I’m focused on this fight.”
“Getting the biggest fights in the world with Jai Opetaia, Beterbiev, even another champion at cruiserweight — I’m trying to make that happen.”
Though some of the more pivotal figures at Zuffa Boxing are UFC boss Dana White and TKO executive Nick Khan, in particular, the company would not exist in its present format without its partnerships with Saudi Arabia’s Sela and Turki Alalshikh.
What’s more, during a quarterly financial call with investors, TKO exec Mark Shapiro said Zuffa’s acquisition of Benn was also subsidized. The upstart fight firm lured Benn from Matchroom in a reported one-fight deal worth $15 million. “Our partner in Zuffa Boxing is Sela — they’re the financial backer entity,” Shapiro said.
“I would add to the reported purse, which I believe was around $15 million, that the reported purse – I’m not confirming or denying – that Conor will be paid for this super fight in 2026, is not TKO going out of pocket. Sela, led by our great partner Turki Alalshikh, is covering the purse.”
As chairman of Saudi’s General Entertainment Authority, Alalshikh works closely with Sela to promote boxing events.
Benavidez recently met Alalshikh backstage at a boxing event inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, an effective home venue for the multi-weight fighter. And he kept that same energy.
“We can talk,” Alalshikh said to Benavidez in a clip DAZN recorded at the time.
“Remember you told me you were going to give me Canelo,” Benavidez told him with a smile. “What happened with that?”
Said Alalshikh: “I want to tell you something. There is something we can do and something we cannot do. Of course I want to see this fight.”
Benavidez said he’d want it now, suggested a trilogy, and told Alalshikh he thought he could make anything happen.