Beterbiev talks open for Bivol-Benavidez undisputed title fight
Eddie Hearn said talks have begun for a Beterbiev-adjacent light heavyweight fight between Dmitry Bivol and David Benavidez, with the undisputed championship on the line if both men get through May. The discussion centers on all four major belts at 175 pounds, turning two separate title defenses into a possible route to one winner.
Hearn and De Cubas talk
“That’s a fight that we’re discussing with Louis De Cubas,” Hearn said, pointing to Benavidez’s co-promoter as the person on the other side of the conversation. He also said, “We need guys like that who want to be great. Want to win the belts, want to become unified and undisputed, want to become multi-weight world champions.”
Bivol currently holds the WBA, IBF, and WBO titles at 175 pounds. Benavidez owns the WBC belt, which is what makes the matchup a clean split of the division’s four major championships rather than a standard title defense.
May 2 and May 30
Before any unification bout can happen, both men have to handle the fights already on their schedules. Benavidez is set to face Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez in a cruiserweight title fight on May 2 in Las Vegas, while Bivol is set to defend against Michael Eifert on May 30 in Russia.
Ramirez enters that fight as the unified WBA and WBO cruiserweight champion, and Benavidez would take his first loss if Ramirez beats him. That creates the main complication in the negotiation: the undisputed light heavyweight fight only stays alive if the two champions win in different weight classes first.
All four belts at 175
If both men win, all four belts at 175 would be in play. That would leave the division with a direct path to an undisputed fight instead of another round of title protection and split-championship politics.
For readers tracking the division, the immediate takeaway is simple: the negotiations are real, but the title picture still runs through two separate May assignments. Bivol and Benavidez can only turn the conversation into a fight if each survives the bout already on the calendar.
