2. David Benavidez (32-0, 25 KOs)
Benavidez was born on December 17th 1996 in Phoenix, Arizona. Given the nickname “The Mexican Monster” by Mike Tyson, Benavidez has made significant strides in the pound for pound rankings over the past couple of years.
He started his career at age 16 with wins over Erasmo Mendoza and Edgar Galvan in Mexico. In the next three years, Benavidez fought fourteen times. On September 8th 2017 in Las Vegas, he became the youngest super middleweight champion in history with a win over Ronald Gavril for the WBC championship.
He scored wins over Anthony Dirrell, J’Leon Love, Ronald Ellis, and David Lemieux before 2023, in which he fought and defeated Caleb Plant and Demetrius Andrade before moving up to the light heavyweight division. Last year, he scored a unanimous decision over Oleksandr Gvodzyk for the WBC interim light heavyweight title. He followed that up with a win over David Morrell Jr. in February for the WBA world title.
On November 22nd 2025, Benavidez went to Riyadh Saudi Arabia and defeated Anthony Yarde by stoppage while having the WBC light heavyweight title. He went into 2026 preparing for a fight at cruiserweight as he challenged Gilberto Ramirez for the WBA and WBO titles. It took Benavidez six rounds to defeat Ramirez and become a three division champion.
After that win in Las Vegas, Benavidez is viewed as one of the most dangerous fighters in the sport and could become one of the most popular fighters in the sport from that performance. It is unknown when his next fight will be, but the plan is to have him get a bout in September of this year.
