David Benavidez Reveals Who He Wants Next After Dominant Zurdo Ramirez Win

Coming off the biggest win of his 32-fight professional career, David Benavidez has his sights locked on one particular matchup.

Benavidez's flawless win over Gilberto 'Zurdo' Ramirez makes him a two-division champion, owning the WBA and WBO cruiserweight titles along with the WBC and WBA light heavyweight belts. As impressive as he was in his 200-pound debut, the 29-year-old wants to go back to his natural weight class to settle an old score.

"We're going after Dmitry Bivol," Benavidez said on 'The Ariel Helwani Show.' "I told you guys that's what I wanted to do. Just for the fans to have something to look forward to, that's why I give you guys my breakdowns of my plans. I told you guys I'm gonna come back down and fight Bivol; that's exactly what I'm gonna do. I've won two more titles at cruiserweight. Now it's time to capture the rest at light heavyweight."

David Benavidez wants Bivol next.#HelwaniShow pic.twitter.com/BtpAd6gNwx
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) May 5, 2026

Immediately after Benavidez's win over Ramirez, Turki Alalshikh proposed the idea of having him move up again to challenge lineal heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk. Benavidez shrugged off the idea, saying he would rather focus on being a two-division champion, which he already believes is difficult enough.

Benavidez was also asked about lineal cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia in his post-fight media availability. While he admitted that Opetaia is the "fight to make," he also acknowledged that it might not be realistic due to the 30-year-old's current alignment with Zuffa Boxing.

David Benavidez proposes Dmitry Bivol catchweight fight

Not only does Benavidez want to fight Bivol, but he wants the fight to be as big as possible. 'The Mexican Monster' further proposed a catchweight bout idea that he believes would get his cruiserweight and light heavyweight belts involved in a "winner take all" matchup.

"How can we make the fight even bigger?" Benavidez said on 'The PorterWay Podcast,' via Sean Zittel. "I was thinking maybe we do a catchweight at 190. We get the cruiserweight belts involved, the light heavyweight belts involved, winner take all. Dmitry said he wants to fight for the cruiserweight championship before his career is over, so maybe we can make an even bigger fight like that."

David Benavidez tells us at @ThePorterWayPod that he’d like to offer up a catchweight fight to Dmitry Bivol at 190 pounds with both the light heavyweight & crusierweight titles on the line.

Benavidez however, reiterates he can get down to 175 if Bivol prefers that instead. pic.twitter.com/QboZC1DDiH
— Sean Zittel (@Sean_Zittel) May 5, 2026

A fight between Benavidez and Bivol would already be for the undisputed light heavyweight titles. Bivol claimed undisputed status in his February 2025 win over Artur Beterbiev before relinquishing the WBC belt when an injury prevented him from making his mandatory defense against Benavidez.

Bivol has not fought since his win over Beterbiev, which then seemed to set up a high-profile trilogy bout, with the champions even at one fight apiece. Bivol is instead set to defend his titles against Michael Eifert, the No. 1 contender in the IBF rankings, on May 30.

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