David Benavidez unhappy- wants re-ranked by WBC at 168
Talented unbeaten, former WBC Super Middleweight champion, David Benavidez, is at odds with the organization. But, not because they stripped him for a second time just before a title defense earlier this month. No, it’s because Benavidez and his promoter say they want to remain at Super Middleweight and should be still ranked highly, as one.
Tuesday Morning, promoter Sampson Lewkowicz notified the World boxing Council in writing that Benavidez disputes having been dropped from the latest 168 lb. rankings, completely. And instead, he has been installed as the number one ranked WBC Light Heavyweight contender.
Lewkowicz made public the letter on social media:
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Sampson Lewkowicz (@sampsonboxing) on
It said in part,
“I am writing to inform you that David wishes to continue his career at Super Middleweight. Therefore, we request that David be returned to the 168 lb. ratings in a position that will make him eligible to fight an eliminator fight with the goal of regaining the title belt that he wears with great pride.”
As Lewkowicz referred to in the post, the 23 year old Benavidez was stripped for being nearly 3 lb. overweight prior to his title defense for Premier Boxing Champions on Showtime’s card at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut August 15th against Alexis Angulo.
Benavidez went on as expected to dominate Angulo and stopped him in 10 rounds, even though he knew he had already been stripped of their Super Middleweight Championship.
It was shortly after that the WBC, seeing how Benavidez, now 23-0, had struggled to make the 168 lb. limit, went ahead and installed him as their number one ranked challenger at Light Heavyweight.
That’s obviously something that he and Lewkowicz are not interested in for the time being.
The WBC also did this in part trying to engineer a Canelo Alvarez fight for the now suddenly vacant 168 lb. championship but that is still uncertain to happen. The WBC and Canelo agreed that Avni Yildirim would be an appropriate opponent, but Canelo’s television partner, DAZN streaming, reportedly vetoed that fight and is refusing to pay Canelo for it.
That brings us back to Benavidez, who is no stranger to trouble away from the ring and with the WBC.
He was previously stripped of their Super Middleweight title in 2018, when he tested positive for cocaine in a pre-fight drug test. The WBC suspended him for four months, but eventually gave him a title shot in September of 2019, where he stopped champion Anthony Dirrell in 9 rounds.
And despite all of the contradictions and corruption involved in boxing organizations and their rankings, Lewkowicz does have a good point: that if the former champion at 168 lb. still wants to be ranked as a Super Middleweight, it should be his choice.
And the WBC doesn’t have any specific policy that says if you were stripped of the title, you’re no longer in their top 10 at all. They seemingly just arbitrarily did it, this time.
Now, we wait to see if Benavidez gets reinstated and gets the title eliminator fight he would like to have either later this year or at the beginning of 2021. The, he would be in position to perhaps recapture the WBC belt for a third time,
A veteran broadcaster of over 25 years, T.J. has been a fight fan longer than that! He’s the host of the “Big Fight Weekend” podcast and will go “toe to toe” with anyone who thinks that Marvin Hagler beat Sugar Ray Leonard or that Tyson, Lennox Lewis or Deontay Wilder could have beaten Ali!
