Bivol-Beterbiev Trilogy Order Could Stall Benavidez 175 Plan

• Benavidez stopped Zurdo Ramirez at T-Mobile on Saturday and immediately put Bivol and Beterbiev back on his hit-list
• The WBA could yet order a Bivol-Beterbiev III mandatory, which would push any Benavidez 175 challenge into 2027
• Luke's read: Bivol takes the Beterbiev money one more time before the Benavidez fight finally gets sanctioned

Right Then — A Logjam Forming At 175

Right then. David Benavidez walked out of T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night the new WBO and WBA cruiserweight champion, having stopped Gilberto Ramirez in six rounds. He did the post-fight ring interview, smiled, hugged his dad, hugged his brother. And then he immediately did what Benavidez always does — he started callouts. Dmitry Bivol. Artur Beterbiev. The two names that have been on his lips for two years. The two names he could not get a sniff of when he was a 168-pound title-holder waiting to be unified. Now he is a cruiserweight champion, looking to come back down to 175 to do exactly what he has always promised — clean the division out and prove he is the best at the weight. The problem is that boxing politics has not gone away while he has been busy at cruiserweight. And the politics at 175 are getting messy again.

The Trilogy Order Is Real

Make no mistake. There is a serious push for a third Bivol-Beterbiev fight. The first two went one apiece. The second was close enough that nobody felt the chapter was properly closed. The numbers are still big in Saudi. Turki Alalshikh has been broadly receptive. And the WBA has shown more than a passing interest in ordering Bivol back into the trilogy mandatory rather than letting him pick his own dance partner. If that order lands and Bivol takes it, that's a six-month training camp, a fight in late 2026, then a recovery, then a re-rankings cycle. By the time Benavidez gets a sniff of Bivol, we are looking at the second half of 2027. That is a long time to be sitting on the cruiserweight belts watching the unification you actually want disappear over the horizon.

Benavidez's Side Of The Argument

Benavidez's team will tell you, quite reasonably, that he has done his bit. He cleaned out 168 short of Canelo, who wouldn't take the fight. He stepped up to cruiser and won a world title. He is the WBC's "champion in recess" at 175 still in some ways and they could push that. He is, by anyone's honest measure, the most avoided fighter in the sport from 168 up to 200. What he can't do is force Bivol to fight him. Bivol's team know they have leverage. They have pointedly told reporters that Bivol wants a tune-up before stepping in with Benavidez. And the easiest tune-up for him is the Beterbiev fight nobody can stop people writing about.

The Beterbiev Angle

Beterbiev is a separate problem. He is 41 now. Whatever he has left, he wants to spend it on a third Bivol fight to settle the trilogy properly — not on a Benavidez fight where he loses some of the legacy upside. So the Beterbiev camp would also rather see the trilogy first. There is a quiet alignment between Bivol and Beterbiev's people on this — get the trilogy money one more time, settle the score, and Benavidez can join the queue afterwards. Which is exactly what Benavidez is worried about.

What The WBC Should Do

The cleanest fix would be for the WBC to put a hard mandatory on Benavidez at 175 with a deadline. Force the issue. Force Bivol's WBC strap into a defence against the man who has been chasing him for two years. The WBA can have its trilogy fight — fine, take that belt out of the equation. But the WBC has a duty to its mandatories and it has a duty to a fighter who has done his ducking-time. Whether they have the spine to do it is another matter entirely.

The Prediction

Bivol takes the Beterbiev money one more time before the year is out. Make no mistake. The trilogy is too good a payday and too clean a way to push Benavidez back another 12 months. Beterbiev wins or loses, and only after that does the Benavidez fight finally get serious traction in Q1 or Q2 2027. That's not what Benavidez wants to hear. That's not what proper boxing fans want to hear either. But it is what the politics of 175 says is coming. The man with the belts gets to choose the dance partner — and Bivol's choice has always been the one that doesn't involve Benavidez. Cruiserweight will be a brilliant home for Benavidez in the meantime. Opetaia for undisputed at 200 is right there. The 175 dream might just have to wait.