Zuffa Could Enter David Benavidez Bidding War

“Benavidez, as I understand it, has one more fight left with PBC and with Samson Lewkowicz. That fight’s probably going to happen in December,” said Mannix on his podcast. “There will be a bidding war for the services of David Benavidez. And the winner of that bidding war, if it’s Zuffa, they’ll set up a Jai fight. If it’s somebody else, maybe it’s Bivol, maybe it’s a heavyweight. It’s probably a different direction.”

Benavidez strengthened his bargaining position by stopping unified cruiserweight champion Gilberto Ramirez. He now has options at cruiserweight and heavyweight without being tied to the Canelo Alvarez pursuit that consumed years of his career.

Zuffa has the clearest ready-made attraction. Benavidez called for an Opetaia fight on Cinco de Mayo after watching the Australian stop Noel Mikaelian. Opetaia won, but he was hit cleanly, hurt, and forced to hold before recovering.

Sergio Mora had previously picked Opetaia to beat Benavidez. The Mikaelian performance changed his mind. Mora now views Benavidez as the favorite and believes his finishing instincts would decide the fight.

That potential matchup gives Zuffa something valuable to place in front of Benavidez during negotiations. Other bidders would need to offer either more money or an equally important opponent.

The danger for Zuffa is paying superstar money for a boxer who has struggled to generate superstar interest on his own. Benavidez versus Opetaia is a major fight, but the company would be buying the matchup as much as the fighter. Once that bout is gone, Zuffa would still need to find opponents capable of justifying Benavidez’s price.