Benavides moves up to bantamweight

WBC head Mauricio Sulaiman announced that David Benavides (29-0, 24 KOs), who has been a mandatory challenger for the super middleweight and bantamweight world titles for the past few weeks, has finally decided to fight for the belt in the heavier weight class.

Benavides will thus be presented by the World Boxing Council as the mandatory opponent for the winner of the unification title fight scheduled for October between Dmitry Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) and Artur Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs).

At the same time, Saul Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KOs), holder of the WBC 168-pound belt, has been cleared to defend against Benavides. The confrontation between "The Monster" and "Canelo" was one of the most anticipated by boxing fans around the world, but Alvarez took his time and now won't lose the WBC trophy for refusing to fight Benavides.