David Benavidez has a return date: Dec. 14

David Benavidez will return to the ring Dec. 14 in a bout intended to keep him sharp and in position for a 2025 date against the winner of the upcoming undisputed light-heavyweight championship, Benavidez promoter Sampson Lewkowicz told BoxingScene Thursday.

Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles has been reserved on that date for a boxing match, according to an individual familiar with the situation, although a venue in Las Vegas could be used as events connected to the fight card unfold.

Phoenix’s Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) is coming off a June 15 unanimous-decision victory over former light-heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk, a showing Benavidez, 27, lamented because of injuries (left-hand, right-arm ligament and a cut over the eye) suffered during and before the bout.

The time off has allowed the former WBC super-middleweight champion to heal, and while Lewkowicz is currently in negotiations with an opponent that the promoter said will offer a quality fight, Benavidez’s ultimate goal is to maximize his preparation to become a two-division champion.

Following an agonizing wait as a top-ranked and WBC mandatory challenger, only to be rebuffed by unified super-middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, Benavidez informed the sanctioning body in late July that he would move to light-heavyweight, where he stands as the WBC interim 175-pound champion.

That shift was accompanied by an assurance from WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman that Benavidez will be in prominent position to fight the winner of the Oct. 12 undisputed light-heavyweight championship fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between unbeaten Russian champions Artur Beterbiev (WBC, IBF, WBO) and Dmitrii Bivol (WBA).

“We will fight either guy,” Lewkowicz said.

Lewkowicz said the current plan is for the Dec. 14 card to be an Amazon Prime Video pay-per-view show that may be accompanied by another high-profile Premier Boxing Champions bout.

PBC is currently working to make fights for unbeaten lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis, who may settle on a November card in Las Vegas, and for the Lewkowicz-promoted newly unified junior-middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora.

While WBC-WBO champion Fundora has expressed his willingness to meet his WBO mandatory opponent Terence Crawford by year’s end, Crawford has reportedly told Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh that he only wants to fight Alvarez and the WBO has yet to instruct Fundora that he’s free to agree to terms for a unification bout with another opponent.