With promotional issues behind him where does the champion go from here, Dirrell?
The last few weeks have been pretty interesting for David Benavidez. As previously reported Benavidez was switching promotional companies from Sampson Promotions to Top Rank, then he wasn’t. He recently went back to Sampson, returning a check for a $250k signing bonus and possibly avoiding legal battles that could have keep him out of the ring for an unknown period of time.
Now that the promotional issues are behind him, what comes next is getting back into the ring. His mandated challenger Anthony Dirrell would like nothing more than to be his next opponent.
In May 2018 the WBC ordered both men to face each other, prior to Benavidez situation with his promotional company. The questions that remains is will the WBC still uphold the order, there haven’t been much talk since then about future fight plans for either combatant.
Dirrell was originally scheduled to fight Benavidez back in 2017 but pulled out due to injury and was replaced by Ronald Gavril. With Callum Smith still tied up in the World Boxing Super Series tournament it leaves the door open for a possible contest between the two men.
Benavidez last fought earlier this year against Gavril in a rematch bout from there highly contested close first fight that saw his hand raised both times.
Its also worth noting that prior to the promotional issues Benavidez had agreed to a fight with Matt Korobov on the undercard of the July 28th Mikey Garcia vs Robert Easter Jr. Super lightweight unification bout. There’s talk that this fight could still happen.
Dirrell also recently fought and got a unanimous decision victory over Abraham Han keeping his chances of a title fight in view.
3KingsBoxing.com will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as more information becomes available.
By: Garrisson “Bo” Bland
