Benavidez Wants His Belt: Mikaelian Told to Fight or Get Stripped

The WBC just drew a line in the sand: fight David Benavidez or lose the belt. According to reports, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has threatened to strip cruiserweight champion Noel Mikaelian unless the 35-year-old and promoter Don King commit to facing the unbeaten American. The problem for the sanctioning body is that Mikaelian, 28-3 (12 KO), already has a dance partner — Jai Opetaia, on September 12.

That fight is locked in for the T-Mobile Arena undercard beneath Ryan Garcia vs Conor Benn in Las Vegas. Opetaia, 30-0 (23 KO) and the division's lineal champion, earned the shot by outpointing Brandon Glanton to claim Zuffa Boxing's cruiserweight title earlier this year. So Mikaelian isn't ducking a fight — he's just picked a different one than the WBC wants.

Why Benavidez Is Owed a Shot

Benavidez, 32-0 with 26 knockouts, only arrived at 200lbs in May. He made it count immediately, becoming a three-division world champion by stopping Gilberto Ramirez in six rounds to grab the WBO and WBA straps. He kept his WBC light-heavyweight belt in his back pocket too, leaving himself an escape hatch back to 175. He's apparently decided he likes the view up here.

Since then, Benavidez has lobbied his way into the WBC mandatory slot, and Sulaiman is clearly in his corner. That's the leverage behind the strip threat — the WBC wants its champion facing its top contender, not chasing a unification with a rival body's titlist.

The Likely Workaround

Reading the tea leaves, the Benavidez-Mikaelian fight looks like a long shot. Mikaelian has signed to face Opetaia, a former IBF champion, and is reportedly trying to put distance between himself and King. If he does get stripped, Benavidez still lands a three-belt unification — just against a different name.

That name could be Michal Cieslak, the WBC's interim titlist. The Polish veteran took his secondary belt by stopping Jean Pascal in four back in June 2025, and hasn't fought since. It's not the marquee scrap Benavidez wants, but it keeps his belt count climbing while the cruiserweight picture sorts itself out. Either way, he's getting a unification bout. The only question is who's foolish enough to be standing across from him.