David Benavidez vs. David Lemieux set for WBC interim Title clash on May 21

David Benavidez lost his WBC super middleweight world twice outside the ring. Now, he has another shot at gaining it back.

The 25-year-old will first have to get through former middleweight titlist-turned 168-pound contender David Lemieux on May 21st, in Phoenix, Arizona, Benavidez's hometown, for the WBC interim title.

He initially won the WBC crown with a 2018 split decision win over Ronald Gavril. In a subsequent rematch, Benavidez dominated the Romanian in a unanimous decision. However, then came the premature end of his first reign as champion. Seven months later, Benavidez tested positive for cocaine in a random drug test conducted by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) and was stripped of his title.

He would regain his world title two fights later with a stoppage win over Anthony Dirrell on the chief support bout to the September 2019 welterweight title unification between Errol Spence Jr. and Shawn Porter. This time, though, he failed to record a single defense as he was stripped again for failing to make weight prior to his August 2020 showdown against Roamer Alexis Angulo.

Benavidez has been on a roll since, as he has picked up a pair of stoppage wins over Ronald Ellis (TKO 11) and Kyrone Davis (TKO 7).

As for Lemieux (43-4, 36 KOs), his career as of late has been plagued with injuries. He was forced to withdraw from a May 2019 fight against John Ryder due to a hand injury. Furthermore, he was scrapped from a planned February 2020 fight against Robert Talarek because of a back injury. Since moving to 168-pounds, the 33-year-old Lemieux is (3-0, 2 KOs). He is coming off a second-round TKO of David Zegarra last June.

The winner of Benavidez-Lemieux will become the WBC mandatory to current undisputed super middleweight world champion and boxing's biggest star, Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez.