Earlier this week, Hollywood director Peter Berg drummed up a storm when he claimed to have witnessed Dmitry Bivol dropping David Benavidez in sparring some years ago.
Berg would later come out to apologize; admitting that he’d gotten his superstar fighters muddled up and that it was David Benavidez who’d scored the knockdown on Bivol.
“I was wrong. I said that Bivol dropped Benavidez […] I remembered it wrong it was Benavidez that dropped Bivol. […] David Benavidez, I’m sorry I said that I got it wrong.”
Bloody Knockout has been searching high and low for any mention of this infamous sparring session; with one interview with ‘The Mexican Monster’ catching our eye.
David Benavidez claims he ‘almost dropped’ Dmitry Bivol in sparring
Peter Berg’s story about Dmitry Bivol being dropped by David Benavidez has understandably gone viral; however, rumors of their sparring had been circulating for some time.
Only a few months ago, speaking on the Cigar Talk YouTube channel, Benavidez was asked who’d gotten the better of that training session – with the 30-0 phenom claiming that he’d “almost dropped” the Russian with a 15-20 punch combination.
“Yeah, I almost dropped him. I almost dropped him, yeah, and I ain’t lying, I don’t have to lie about anything… There were a lot of people who were there seeing our sparring, and it was a great sparring session.
“I’ve sparred Bivol a couple of times but the last time I sparred him; I almost dropped him… I had caught him into the corner, we’d done four rounds, and this was in the last 20 seconds, I lit his a—up with like 15-20 shots, I’m not lying about that at all.”
The interim WBC world heavyweight champion acknowledged that since the sparring session had taken place during his early years, a repeat session would only go one way.
“When I sparred Bivol I was 21, that’s the last time I sparred him [when I was] 21 or 22 – so imagine now, I have more strength, more power and more experience.
“That’s why I have so much confidence because I’ve sparred him and people say that you don’t really get anything out of sparring, but the elite know that if you can touch someone in sparring, then a fight is the exact same thing – probably even worse.”
Benavidez later claimed that after being hurt, Bivol’s team refused to spar him again and that the entire session was caught on film – although that footage is yet to make its way onto the internet.
“And then after when the round ended, they said that they didn’t want to spar anymore. If anyone wants to say that I’m lying, Churchill Boxing, they record everything and they had all the footage.”
WBC declares Dmitry Bivol must fight David Benavidez next
Dmitry Bivol defeated Artur Beterbiev via majority decision in their unbelievable rematch last weekend – and whilst fans are desperate to see the trilogy, the WBC has now moved in Benavidez’s direction.
“Undisputed champion Artur Beterbiev will fight a rematch with Dmitry Bivol on February 22 in Riyadh. Interim champion David Benavidez will fight David Morrell on February 1. The winner will be the mandatory challenger for the division to fight the winner of Beterbiev vs. Bivol.
“Dimitry Bivol must fight David Benavidez next,” reads the final line of the WBC status update.
Benavidez defeated David Morrell via a unanimous decision.
In a prior interview with Ariel Helwani, Benavidez noted that he’d much prefer to fight Bivol next over Artur Beterbiev as “that would make my case even better to Canelo [Alvarez].
“I know Dmitry Bivol really well, I sparred him a lot. He’s a great fighter and we’ve had a lot of great sparring sessions so I definitely would love to fight Bivol.”