{"id":938567,"date":"2026-05-05T04:39:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T04:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/938567\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T04:39:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T04:39:20","slug":"david-benavidez-urges-dana-white-to-help-facilitate-jai-opetaia-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/938567\/","title":{"rendered":"David Benavidez urges Dana White to help facilitate Jai Opetaia fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benavidez<\/a> also suggested after his sixth-round knockout of Gilberto Ramirez that it\u2019ll take a third man to ensure that boxing’s two best cruiserweights fight sometime in the foreseeable future. <\/p>\n

The newly crowned WBA\/WBO champ wants confirmation from UFC president and CEO Dana White, the face of Zuffa Boxing, that the emerging promotional company is willing to work with his handlers to facilitate a fight against Opetaia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Dana White has showed that he doesn\u2019t want to do fights with PBC, DAZN,\u201d Benavidez said during his post-fight press conference at T-Mobile Arena. \u201cI don\u2019t want to sound like I\u2019m disrespecting [White], but that\u2019s just what it looks like from the outside. If we could come to an agreement and make a big fight, let\u2019s do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Benavidez has long been promoted by Sampson Lewkowicz\u2019s Sampson Boxing. The three-division champion has also worked with Al Haymon\u2019s Premier Boxing Champions for most of his 12-year career.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s Opetaia<\/a> (30-0, 23 KOs) made his Zuffa Boxing debut March 8, when he soundly beat Brandon Glanton (21-4, 18 KOs) on points at Meta APEX<\/a>, UFC\u2019s performance center in Las Vegas. Zuffa\u2019s well-documented disagreement with the IBF resulted in the New Jersey-based sanctioning organization stripping Opetaia of its title<\/a>. Benavidez (32-0, 26 KOs) told The Ring before he dominated Mexico\u2019s Ramirez (48-2, 30 KOs) that he was less interested in opposing Opetaia once the IBF stripped him<\/a> because he wants to become undisputed champion in the 200-pound division.The Phoenix native seemed more open to testing himself against Opetaia after he scored two knockdowns and overwhelmed Ramirez with power, speed and volume in his cruiserweight debut<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s the biggest fight in the world, especially at this weight division,\u201d Benavidez said. \u201cThat\u2019s definitely a fight I want. I\u2019m not scared of nobody. This is Monstruo\u2019s world, and if he wants to get that fight, we can. I don\u2019t know why he went to Zuffa. We could’ve made this fight right after this one [with Ramirez]. But now, I don\u2019t know if he got stripped by the IBF or what it is. I\u2019m not going to go over there and fight for a Zuffa title.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zuffa\u2019s leadership group ultimately wants its titles to become more important to fighters than the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO belts. Benavidez and others have emphasized, however, that attaining undisputed status remains important to them in the four-belt era.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Benavidez, 29, nevertheless would love to prove himself against Opetaia, who holds The Ring and Zuffa crowns.<\/p>\n

He expects to move back down to the light heavyweight limit of 175 pounds for his next fight, which he hopes comes against unified champ Dmitry Bivol<\/a> (24-1, 12 KOs). <\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Bivol, who owns The Ring, IBF, WBA and WBO belts, dropped to No. 6 pound-for-pound by The Ring in the latest rankings to be released Monday afternoon \u2014<\/b> one spot behind the rising Benavidez.<\/p>\n

Opetaia, meanwhile, could defend his Ring and Zuffa titles against the winner between former WBO champ Chris Billam-Smith<\/a> (21-2, 13 KOs) and Canadian contender Ryan Rozicki<\/a> (21-1-1, 20 KOs). They will make their Zuffa debuts in a 12-round bout June 6 in Bournemouth, England, Billam-Smith\u2019s hometown. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that would be a great fight to make in the future,\u201d Benavidez said of facing Opetaia. <\/p>\n

\u201cI respect Jai Opetaia a lot. He\u2019s a great fighter and I think he has to come back over here to make these fights happen, because we can\u2019t make no fights in Zuffa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benavidez also suggested after his sixth-round knockout of Gilberto Ramirez that it\u2019ll take a third man to ensure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[222138,1935,222139,4496,3525,198989,79,10171,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-938567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-object-object","9":"tag-boxing","10":"tag-boxing-articles","11":"tag-boxing-news","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-light-heavyweight","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-the-ring","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116520128937813690","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}