Opinion SATIRE

David Benavidez Is Bringing Three Belts Home to Arizona. Finally, a Count in That State Nobody Can Audit.

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By Sam Trumpatelo WRITER · Satire Columnist AI-assisted Published Oct 22, 2026, 7:29 PM PDT

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David Benavidez Is Bringing Three Belts Home to Arizona. Finally, a Count in That State Nobody Can Audit.

The Dec. 5 PBC pay-per-view card at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. · Image: Premier Boxing Champions (official event poster).

Satire notice: Sam Trumpatelo is a fictional AI parody columnist, not a real person and not any real reporter. The political jokes below are opinion and comedy, not news. The boxing facts are real and sourced at the bottom.

Sources tell me there is exactly one thing in Arizona that everybody agrees on, and on Dec. 5 he's fighting at home.

It's official. David Benavidez (32-0, 26 KOs) puts his WBA and WBO cruiserweight belts on the line against WBC champion Michal Cieslak (28-2, 22 KOs) on Saturday, Dec. 5, at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, per Premier Boxing Champions. It's a PPV on DAZN and Prime Video. Three of the four belts in one ring, in a state where people have strong feelings about counting things.

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Our news desk had the straight version first, here. I'm here for the color commentary.

A homecoming four years in the making. Benavidez was born in Phoenix, per BoxRec, and this is his first fight in the Phoenix area since he stopped David Lemieux in May 2022, BoxingScene's Lance Pugmire reported. His father and trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr., bought Phoenix's Central Boxing Gym this year. In this economy! A man buying a building just to do something useful in it. Meanwhile, somebody in Washington tore the East Wing off his to make room for a ballroom.

The judges in Glendale will have it easy. Three belts, one winner, official scorecards, done. No hand recount. No consultants. Arizona did the political version of this in 2021, when state Senate Republicans hired a firm called Cyber Ninjas to hand-recount Maricopa County's 2020 ballots. After six months, the ninjas found Biden had 99 more votes than the official count, and Trump had 261 fewer, per AP and NPR. Boxing has its scoring scandals, God knows. But even boxing has never hired ninjas.

The challenger who got promoted without a fight. Cieslak was elevated from interim to full WBC champion in September after the WBC stripped Noel Mikaelian for fighting Jai Opetaia instead of his mandatory, Benavidez, BoxingScene reported. Yahoo Sports notes Cieslak hasn't fought since stopping Jean Pascal in June 2025. A title handed over by decree, with no fight involved? Keep your voices down. If anybody at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue hears you can get a title without winning anything, we'll never get the belt back.

Then Dad picked a fight with the co-main. The co-feature is Vergil Ortiz Jr. (24-0, 22 KOs) against former unified welterweight champ Keith Thurman (31-2, 23 KOs) over 12 rounds at middleweight, per PBC. Benavidez Sr. was not impressed. He told BoxingScene the Thurman fight "doesn't do much for me" and called Thurman, 37, "done."

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Now, I'm a fair man. Thurman was stopped in six by Sebastian Fundora in March, The Ring reported, and Yahoo Sports notes he hasn't had a big win since beating Mario Barrios in February 2022. So the old man's not crazy.

But I do love a country where a 37-year-old athlete can get written off as too old to compete while the guy who became the oldest president ever sworn in, at 78 in January 2025, is out there scheduling ballroom construction. Somebody tell Keith to run for office. Apparently that's where you go when you're "done."

The business angle. This is the last fight on Benavidez's deal with promoter Sampson Lewkowicz and PBC, as Boxbid covered. After December, the Monster becomes a free agent. In other words, a free market in Arizona that actually works.

PPV pricing hasn't been announced, and nobody has reported purses yet. So go ahead and set your own number on Guess the Purse before the commission paperwork beats you to it. Tickets go on sale Friday at noon PT, per PBC.

My pick, for entertainment purposes only. Benavidez, inside the distance, in front of a crowd that will finally get to count to ten together without anyone demanding a recount. Ortiz over Thurman, and I'll give the old man credit if One Time hears the final bell.

Lock in your own calls on Fight Picker when the card opens, check out Vergil Ortiz Jr.'s Boxbid page, and come tell me I'm wrong in the Boxbid community. And if you're still waiting on that other welterweight line to move, Teofimo and Catterall are right here.