- Benavidez is now a three-weight world champion (168, 175, 200) at 28 years old, undefeated at 32-0 with 26 stoppages
- Inoue, Usyk, Crawford and Bivol sit ahead of him on most P4P lists — but none have moved up two divisions in two years
- The Canelo callout from inside the T-Mobile ring on Saturday gives the lists their reason to act this week
Right Then — Where The Lists Sit Tonight
Right then. Open up the Ring P4P. Open up ESPN's. Open up the Boxing Writers list and the BoxingScene one. David Benavidez sits seventh on a couple, eighth on others. Behind Oleksandr Usyk, behind Naoya Inoue, behind Terence Crawford who's retired, behind Dmitry Bivol who hasn't fought in a year, behind Junto Nakatani — who, by the way, just lost on Saturday.
Make no mistake. The lists are now wrong.
The Resume
Let's look at the actual resume. Benavidez beat Caleb Plant. He beat David Morrell. He beat Gilberto Ramirez twice now — once at 175 in February 2025 and again on Saturday at 200. He's a three-weight champion at 28 years old. Three weights. All major sanctioning bodies. Undefeated.
Compare that to Bivol, who's currently number three on most lists. Bivol's last fight was over a year ago and he's just had the WBO title pulled from him by sanctioning body decision. Compare it to Usyk, who's brilliant, no question, but Usyk's been at heavyweight since 2021 — Benavidez has moved up two divisions in two years and won titles at every stop.
The Knock — And Why It Doesn't Fly
The knock on Benavidez has always been "he's not beaten an elite top-five fighter in his prime." Let's not beat around the bush. He'd never get the Canelo fight. Canelo ducked him at 168 for years. He had to go up to 175 to find dance partners. He had to go up to 200 to find another one. That's not Benavidez's fault — that's the matchmaking.
And what did he do when he got to those weights? He stopped Plant. He stopped Morrell. He stopped Ramirez twice. The man has a 26-KO record from 32 fights. Eighty-one percent stoppage rate at world level. That's proper.
The Inoue Argument
Inoue's still number one on most lists and that's fair. He's a four-weight champion, undisputed at 122, just took a 12-round decision over the next-best guy at his weight. His resume is brilliant. But here's the thing — Saturday was a hard night for Inoue. He didn't stop Nakatani. He won a clear decision but it was a competitive fight and one judge had it 116-112, which is closer than the Monster usually gets.
That doesn't drop Inoue from number one. But it makes the gap to number two — which has been a vacancy since Crawford retired — wider open than the lists have been showing. Usyk is the obvious number two. After that, the case for Benavidez at three is now stronger than the case for anyone else.
The Canelo Callout Changes Things
And here's the kicker. From inside the T-Mobile ring on Saturday night, Benavidez called out Canelo on the Sky Sports microphone. He didn't have to. He'd just made history. He could have walked off and let the moment sit. Instead he went straight at the man who's avoided him for three years and forced the conversation.
Whether Canelo bites is a different question — Canelo is meant to fight Christian Mbilli in September in Riyadh. But the demand is now Benavidez vs Canelo. Benavidez is the most popular fighter in Mexican boxing this morning. The lists know it. The fans know it.
The Prediction
Ring Magazine drops their May P4P list this week. If Benavidez isn't top five on it, they've got a problem. My call is he goes in at four. Inoue stays one, Usyk two, Bivol drops to three or four depending on if the WBO ruling pushes him further down, and Benavidez slides in at number four with Nakatani and Crawford falling. That's the honest read.
If you know, you know. Three weights at 28. Undefeated. Stops everybody. The argument's over.