Notebook: Bivol leaves Benavidez hanging, vacates WBC title

Trilogy fight with Beterbiev on tap; Shakur-Zepeda ordered; Opetaia injured, defense postponed; Ryan Garcia reunites with trainer James; Quick hits; Show and tell

Dan Rafael

Apr 08, 2025

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He also avenged a majority decision loss to Beterbiev (21-1, 20 KOs) that cost him the WBA belt in October when they met to unify the four titles and to produce the division’s first undisputed champion of the four-belt era and the first at 175 pounds since Roy Jones Jr. in the three-belt era 25 years earlier.

“Mr. Bivol has been placed in a position where, unfortunately, he is being forced to relinquish the World Boxing Council Light Heavyweight Title,” Patrick English, Benavidez’s attorney wrote in a letter to WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman, which was obtained by Fight Freaks Unite.

“Everyone in boxing knows that there is a commitment for a third bout with Artur Beterbiev, generally considered the second best light heavyweight in boxing. We are working to consummate that bout.

“In addition, we are dismayed at the inability of the ratings organizations to adhere to the rotation system set up many years ago. You are aware that the IBF has claimed to be the lead organization, with justification, for the next Bivol bout.”

Bivol (24-1, 12 KOs) also owes an IBF mandatory defense to Michael Eifert, who agreed to step aside to permit the Bivol-Beterbiev rematch to be for the undisputed crown with the promise he would be next for the winner. Although Eifert was next based on the rotation system implemented to determine the order of mandatory defenses for unified champions, the WBC ordered the fight against Benavidez anyway.

“We wish to be courteous to those involved in the potential purse bid scheduled for (Tuesday),” English wrote. “Thus we notify you of the relinquishment of the belt before that time so people will not incur needless travel expenses. Mr. Bivol appreciates such courtesies from the WBC as were accorded him in the past.”

Soon after receiving the letter from English, Sulaiman announced that Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs), who also holds the WBA “regular” title, had been elevated to full WBC titleholder.

“I have just received a cold and impersonal notification from Dmitry Bivol lawyer, Patrick English, with arguments that are so ridiculous that I rather not discuss informing the WBC that Dmitry Bivol has decided to relinquish his WBC light heavyweight championship,” Sulaiman posted to social media. “We wish Bivol success and hereby confirm David Benavidez as WBC world light heavyweight champion.”

The third Bivol-Beterbiev fight is not official yet but it is penciled in for October for the opening of the next Riyadh Season festival in Riyadh.

Benavidez promoter Sampson Lewkowicz had hoped Bivol would fight Benavidez, a match he believed would generate good business in Las Vegas.

“The third Bivol-Beterbiev fight will be another great fight. They have had two entertaining fights but the American public didn’t care,” Lewkowicz told Fight Freaks Unite. “It only sold 45,000 (pay-per-views in the United States) at ($25.99). Bivol against Benavidez in America would sell much, much more here.

“He gave up the title because he didn’t want to face Benavidez. He really wants to do the trilogy with Beterbiev. But everybody should know this: We will give the winner the opportunity to get the WBC title back at any time. We are one phone call away to make this fight happen.”

Lewkowicz said for Benavidez’s next fight “we need to negotiate the best challenger possible who has the courage to face him.”

Benavidez is coming off arguably a career-best win over David Morrell, who he defeated by clear unanimous decision to retain his interim belt and win the WBA “regular” title on Feb. 1 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in the main event of a PBC on Prime Video pay-per-view card.

Three weeks later Benavidez flew to Riyadh at invitation of Turki Alalshikh, who oversees Riyadh Season, for Beterbiev-Bivol II, hoping to fight the winner but the talks with Alalshikh were not productive.

Shakur-Zepeda ordered

Shakur Stevenson vs. William Zepeda to be rescheduled

The WBC on Monday formally ordered the mandatory fight between lightweight titlist Shakur Stevenson and interim titleholder William Zepeda.

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman told Fight Freaks Unite they have 30 days to negotiate a deal or there will be a purse bid on May 6. Sulaiman said the purse split has not been determined because the organization is considering Zepeda promoter Golden Boy’s request for a modification of what would have been a 70-30 split in Stevenson’s favor.

The WBC made the order two days after Zepeda promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy accused Stevenson of pulling out of the fight on social media and Stevenson responded.

“After all the shit talking, Shakur Stevenson pulled out of Zepeda fight,” De La Hoya posted.

Stevenson fired back, saying even though he rejected an offer from Turki Alalshikh, the Saudi Arabian official who oversees Riyadh Season, he still wants to negotiate.

“Is that what they told you?? Turki promised me a number and now he going way back on that number that he promised me and sending his Towel boys to run me the info instead telling me straight up what he tryna do,” Stevenson wrote. “Ion bow down to nobody Mr. De La Hoya now let’s negotiate!”

Stevenson later added, “Crazy thing is on my soul I would cook dude so badly, he’s a mismatch. I want this fight so bad that these dudes want to take advantage of me by giving me way less then I got for (Josh) Padley just because they know how bad I want it!

“Oh yeah, and I’m not done negotiating cause one thing bout it I’m the champ. So whether the fight gets done wit these people or not I’m stepping on dude but the fight will be made next!!!!

“The fight is ordered by the WBC, I’m still Champion and aren’t pulling out of anything. If we can’t reach a deal then purse bids it is. See you soon.”

The southpaws were on course to fight last year but injuries to both of them delayed the schedule. While Stevenson was sidelined while recovering from wrist surgery, Zepeda (33-0, 27 KOs), 28, of Mexico, won the vacant interim title via split decision over Tevin Farmer in November. Zepeda won a majority decision over Farmer in their immediate rematch on March 29.

Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs), 27, of Newark, New Jersey, who has won titles in three divisions, has defended the lightweight title twice, most recently on the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol II undercard on Feb. 22 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He scored a ninth-round knockout of late replacement Padley, who filled in on four days’ notice after Floyd Schofield dropped out due to illness.

Opetaia defense postponed

Jai Opetaia poses with the IBF and Ring Magazine belts

Lineal/IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia’s defense against Claudio Squeo, which was scheduled for May 13 in front of home region fans at the Gold Coast Convention Centre in Broadbeach, Australia, has been postponed.

The fight is rescheduled for June 8 on DAZN at the same venue, Opetaia co-promoter Mick Francis of Tasman Fighters announced.

The reason for the postponement was announced as “a minor injury sustained by Opetaia during training, which requires additional time for recovery.” The injury is a Grade 1 tear of his calf, sources with knowledge of the injury told Fight Freaks Unite.

“Being the animal that Jai is in the ring, he takes no opponent lightly,” Francis said. “He wants to be 100 percent fit to defend his IBF and Ring magazine cruiserweight world titles. Under doctor’s orders, we have pushed the fight back by three weeks to ensure Jai is in top form for the bout.”

Opetaia (27-0, 21 KOs), 29, a southpaw, will be making his sixth lineal defense and the third defense of his second IBF reign against Squeo (17-0, 9 KOs), 34, who has never fought outside of his native Italy or faced an even remotely notable opponent.

The fight will be Opetaia’s second in a row at the venue. On Jan. 8, he scored a brutal fourth-round knockout of unbeaten David Nyika.

Opetaia is staying busy hoping to land a three-belt unification bout against Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez later this year after Ramirez, who holds the WBO and WBA belts, makes a mandatory defense against former titlist Yuniel Dorticos. That fight is supposed to take place in June but has not been announced yet.

Garcia reunites with James

Ryan Garcia is back training with Derrick James after having left him to reunite with Eddy Reynoso.

Garcia is training for a move up to welterweight to face Rolando Romero (16-2, 13 KOs) for the vacant WBA “regular” title in the main event Turki Alalshikh’s Ring magazine-branded card on May 2 (DAZN PPV) in New York’s Times Square.

Garcia initially returned to Reynoso, who had trained him for several fights earlier in his career before Garcia had a falling out with Canelo Alvarez, Reynoso’s top fighter.

However, it turned out that Reynoso was unable to train Garcia because Alvarez made a deal with Alalshikh to fight William Scull in an undisputed super middleweight title fight on May 3 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, making it logistically impossible for Reynoso to work both fights. He and Alvarez are also heading to Riyadh three weeks before the fight, which meant Reynoso would not have been available for much of the training camp.

So, James apparently has welcomed Garcia back for their third fight in a row together. James trained Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs), 26, of Los Angeles, for his previous two fights, an eighth-round knockout of Oscar Duarte in December 2023 followed by his controversial fight with Devin Haney last April.

Garcia scored three knockdowns on left hooks and won a majority decision but has not fought since because he was suspended by the New York State Athletic Commission for a year, agreed to forfeit his entire purse, and the result of the fight was changed to a no contest due to multiple positive tests for performance-enhancing drugs related to the bout.

Still, it came as a surprise that Garcia had split with James, but it was brief.

“Major announcement,” Garcia recently posted to social media. “Working with Derrick James this camp. And it’s been going great. Let’s go.”

Henry Garcia, Ryan’s father, is also part of his training team.

Quick hits

The WBC announced that Diego Pacheco (23-0, 18 KOs), 24, of Los Angeles, pulled out of a purse bid set for Tuesday for a fight versus Montreal-based Frenchman Christian Mbilli (28-0, 23 KOs), 29, for the organization’s vacant interim super middleweight title. Pacheco promoter Matchroom Boxing did not provide a reason other than to say it has another fight lined up for him. According to a source with knowledge of the plans, that is a summer bout against Trevor McCumby (28-1, 21 KOs), 32, of Glendale, Arizona, who gave former titlist Caleb Plant a good fight and knocked him down before suffering a ninth-round knockout loss on the Canelo Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga undercard in September. “It is very unfortunate that Diego Pacheco has pulled out of the process for the ordered fight vs. Mbilli,” WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman posted to social media.

The purse bid for a WBC final junior lightweight title eliminator between Eduardo “Rocky” Hernandez and Mark Magsayo that was scheduled for Tuesday was postponed. The WBC announced that it has given Hernandez promoter Matchroom Boxing and Magsayo co-promoters TGB Promotions and MP Promotions a one-week delay at their request as they try to hammer out a deal. If the fight happens the winner will be mandatory for titlist O’Shaquie Foster. Former WBC featherweight titlist Magsayo (27-2, 18 KOs), 29, of the Philippines, has won three fights in a row since moving up to 130 pounds. Hernandez (37-2, 32 KOs), 27, of Mexico, has won three in a row since Foster stopped him in the 12th round of a dramatic comeback to retain the title in a mandatory defense in October 2023.

Tina Rupprecht (15-1-1, 3 KOs), 32, of Germany, outpointed Sumire Yamanaka (8-1, 3 KOs), 23, a southpaw from Japan, to become the women’s undisputed atomweight champion on Saturday at MBS Arena in Potsdam, Germany. Rupprecht, who entered the bout with the WBC, WBA and WBO belts in women’s boxing’s smallest division (102 pounds), won a majority decision — 99-91, 96-95 and 95-95 — to retain her belts and win the IBF title. Rupprecht won her third fight in a row since a shutout decision loss to Seniesa Estrada in a strawweight unification fight in March 2023.

Show and tell

I had traveled to Las Vegas for USA Today to take care of two pieces of business. Mainly, I was at the MGM Grand to cover what turned out to be Marco Antonio Barrera’s brilliant performance in big upset decision win over fellow Hall of Famer Prince Naseem Hamed to become the lineal featherweight champion in what I consider the defining fight of Barrera’s career. But I also went a couple of days earlier than I usually would because I was doing a major story on heavyweight brothers Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, who were making their names in professional boxing but still quite unknown in the United States. They were in Las Vegas to film the boxing scenes in the forthcoming blockbuster film “Ocean’s Eleven.” The casino heist in the movie was set to the backdrop of the fictional heavyweight fight dubbed “Desert Storm” between Lennox Lewis and Wladimir, who had big brother Vitali as part of his corner (as he always did in his real fights also). It was my opportunity to finally meet the Klitschkos and interview them for the first time for the piece I was writing.

We had lunch together at the MGM Grand and I sat down with each brother individually in their trailers to interview them. I also spent a good potion of the rest of the day on the set and watched them film the fight scenes with Lewis and Emanuel Steward, his trainer. As the cameras rolled, I was sitting just a few feet from Julia Roberts and some of the other Hollywood stars that had roles in the movie. To make it as realistic as possible, I was issued a prop media credential for the fictional fight. I was no longer Dan Rafael. I was fictional reporter “Russell Bobbitt” — even though I did not appear in the movie and was just a guest on the set. It was a very cool and memorable experience. It took place 24 years ago this week. Here’s that prop credential in my collection.

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Photos: Bivol: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing; Opetaia: Getty; Garcia and James: Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy

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