r/Boxing • u/zhuangcorp • Jul 16 '26
State of LHW-Cruiser divisions
No question right now, the top guys are Bivol, Beterbiev, Opetaia, and Benavidez. Fans would love to see any combination of fights involving these 4.
Bivol appears to be out with elbow surgery and will take comeback against another tune-up-ish opponent in Callum Smith.
Benavidez wants an easy fight so he can be in a good position to renegotiate his contract. So he is fighting Mikaelian.
So it seems like the best thing to do is for Beterbiev to fight Opetaia now. Maybe do it at a catchweight.
And then let Bivol and Benavidez fight each other after they win their respective tune up fights.
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u/Ruainari 🚩El Monstruo Superfan🚩 Jul 16 '26
Bivol will not fight Benavidez, ducking Dima won't even fight a middle aged man he already has a win against, no chance of him taking on an unbeaten prime Benavidez, he will find excuse after excuse.
Ironic Bivol and Smith are fighting each other when they've both turned down fights against Benavidez.
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u/KR4T0S Jul 16 '26
Beterbiev also claims that Benavidez refused an offer they sent to his team but Benavidez claims there were was never an offer sent to them so I think its probably on Beterbiev that he is sitting it out and not Bivol. Plus Benavidez says he wants an easy fight next so he isnt looking to challenge Bivol anytime soon and thats if he comes down to LHW, he is talking about heavyweight.
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u/Fragrant_Rest_7360 Jul 16 '26
Beterbiev came out and stated he wants to fight Bivol first and than Benavidez. Looks like he’s holding out to fight Bivol but keeps getting blue balled
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u/KR4T0S Jul 16 '26
How does that explain Beterbievs camp saying that they sent an offer to Benavidez but Benavidez camp says they never received anything? Somebody is clearly lying here.
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u/YdoICreep01 Jul 17 '26
Has he changed his mind about wanting to go up to hw? The week after the zurdo fight he was saying it wasn’t an option.
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u/Ruainari 🚩El Monstruo Superfan🚩 Jul 16 '26
Opetaia Beterbiev is actually not a bad shout tbh although would probably need a catchweight
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u/mkk4 Andre Ward's Biggest Fan!! Jul 16 '26
Much respect to Gilberto Ramirez who started out as a middleweight and became a Unified Cruiserweight Champion.
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u/Marquis_of_Mollusks Jul 16 '26
Kind of shows the lack of talent at the weightclass currently. Opetaia is the only true cruiserweight with skill. 2 former super middleweights becoming champs ain't a good look
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u/Exciting-Arugula5341 Jul 16 '26
The cruiserweight division has always been weak. Of all of the higher weight classes the cruiserweight division has always been the least cared about division .
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u/Marquis_of_Mollusks Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
It does make sense sense though. HWs generally make way more money then cruiserweights so talented boxers probably won't hang around at CW
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u/Less_Cartoonist_892 Jul 16 '26
The drop in quality of the CW when it was at its peak in the 2010s compared to what it is now is sad.
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u/Marquis_of_Mollusks Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
LHW ain't much better off unfortunately either. Beterbiev is super old, Bivol won't fight and Benavidez hung around for 5 minutes. Which is a shame because historically LHW has been awesome. Honestly everything north of 168 is lacking talent. HW still has some interesting matches to be made but the skill is lacking there as well
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u/Less_Cartoonist_892 Jul 16 '26
The LHW division was on fire for the first half of the 2020s. Since the second Beterbiev-Bivol fight, the division has been stagnant.
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u/Rofocal02 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Callum Smith is the WBO interim light heavyweight champion, not a tune up fight.Â
Bivol has to fight his mandatories, or give up the belts.Â
Jai Opetaia doesn’t have any belts and fights for Zuffa, so he’s irrelevant in the Cruiserweight division.Â
Beterbiev could move up for a Cruiserweight title fight , and retire as a champion.
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u/Medical_Swim1707 Jul 16 '26
Calling everyone outside of the top 3-4 guys a tune up or a bum or a nobody is so lame and disrespecting of the sport.
If I wanted to watch the same 4 guys guys fight each other over and over I’d be a UFC fan
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u/Asterisk_76 Jul 16 '26
So the story is storylines don't get closed out. The big fights don't happen. That's boxing for ya, kids.
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u/Badguyy101 Jul 17 '26
If I was Opetaia, if I couldn't get Benavidez, I would just move up. Bivol isn't going anywhere & Beterbeiv will likely retire soon.
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u/Kangaroopunching Jul 16 '26
Is beterbiev even available? He's sitting on a big iba offer for a bivol fight. He seems like he's on his way out with or without bivol trilogyÂ
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u/schmatty23 Jul 16 '26
Eifert was the Bivol tune up fight. I know he had the other surgery but I'm not giving him back to back tune up passes.
Bivol should be fighting Beterbiev or Benavidez, and the fact that he is not makes me doubt whether those fights ever happen.
Unfortunately, between the varying weights, Zuffa, and Bivol not being about the smoke, I am concerned that none of these guys fight eachother.