By Sean Jones: WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez’s father/trainer Jose Benavidez Sr. says Canelo Alvarez is starting to look “worn” from all the fights he’ had.
Jose Sr. says the 6’2″ Benavidez (22-0, 19 KOs) would neutralize Canelo’s favorite weapon in his arsenal, his left hook, by throwing jabs and power shots at his chest rather than his head. Fighters make a mistake of attempting to throw to Canelo’s head, and he makes them miss and then counters them.
The fighters that threw straight shots and jabs gave Canelo major problems. We’re talking about Floyd Mayweather Jr., Gennadiy Golovkin, and Erislandy Lara. Those three took away Canelo’s left hook by throwing straight shots the entire fight, but he was still able to dodge defeats against them all due to the generous scoring.
Jose says that Canelo will NEVER fight David Benavidez. He says he tried to set up a fight between Canelo and Benavidez, but he never agreed to it.
Benavidez can neutralize Canelo’s offense
“That would be the toughest fight ever, and it gets me nervous because he’s the face of boxing,” said Jose Benavidez Sr. to Fighthype about a fight between David Benavidez and Canelo. “David is bigger, and we’re going to have to use our jab a lot. He [Canelo] likes to throw those big hooks.
“A lot of people don’t know it, but straight punches will beat anything. Once you throw the jab, it neutralizes the hook, and he’s [Canelo] not going to be able to land that hook. He’s really good with that counter hook. A lot of people make a mistake of trying to hit the face instead of hitting the chest.
“Anybody can move the face and their head, but the chest and the stomach is there all the time. So we will have to work on the chest and the stomach. So by the time he throws a hook, he will bounce back. Use that jab from distance and hit the stomach, hit the body, and then come with the right hand.
“Try and throw a lot of straight punches because if you try and stay with him, he’s good at what he does. If you stay in close distance, but there’s no need for that,” said Jose Sr on Canelo.
Benavidez’s reach is five inches longer than Sergey Kovalev’s, and he was able to jab Canelo effectively for the first 10 rounds. Kovalev probably would have beaten Canelo had he not backed up against the ropes in the 11th round.
Benavidez has a lot longer arms than Canelo, and he’d do well against him by jabbing and throwing straight punches.
Jose Sr: Canelo is WORN already
“Canelo has already had a lot of fights already,” said Jose Sr. “He’s very young, and he’s worn. I haven’t see Canelo with his knee brace, but those knees aren’t any good anymore. He’s not the same anymore. That’s why we want to fight him because he’s done a lot already in the business.
“To me, he’s a little bit worn. He’s fought a lot of good people. A lot of people don’t give him credit. He got hit a lot by Kovalev. That fight, to me, Kovalev was winning all that fight, and then I don’t know what happened. And then he fought GGG too; he got hit with big shots.
“He was the best, but he’s had so many fights. He’s been dedicated to the game, disciplined but the body wears out. That’s what I think. He’s had so many fights, and he’s worn a little bit. I don’ think those knees are even 70 percent.
“So I think we [David] have a pretty good chance, but don’t get me wrong. That’s a very dangerous fight, and anything can happen. But like I said, if you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best,” said Benavidez.
Jose Sr. has good observation because of a lot of boxing fans are seeing the same thing when they look at Canelo. He’s starting to face from his grueling fights against Gennadiy Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs.
Canelo WON’T fight David Benavidez
“There’s no chance,” said Jose when asked what’s the chance of David Benavidez getting a fight against Canelo. “Zero chance. Canelo will NOT fight David. He will not. We tried so hard, but I don’t think he will fight. He wanted to fight Caleb Plant, but Caleb Plant didn’t want to fight him.
“I don’t understand the reason behind that. Why not fight the best? Even though you lose, you are going to be a star. Everyone is going to know your name. Now you can pick whoever you want to fight. Not even if it was three months.
“We’ll take it with four weeks,” said Jose Sr. about David Benavidez being willing to take Canelo fight on four weeks’ notice we’ll take that fight. It depends on how David comes out [of one of his fights]. If he’s cut or whatever, that’s an opportunity of a lifetime. Why not.
“I don’t think it’ll affect [Benavidez’s chances of winning the fight] because in our last camp, we sparred Porky Medina, and we had four guys here. Here is where they get injured and wear out in training camp. That’s only a one-day fight. There you don’t have to rotate partners.
It doesn’t look like Canelo will ever fight Benavidez. If Canelo wanted to fight Benavidez, he wouldn’t have looked in the direction of Billy Joe Saunders for his next fight.
Benavidez will take Canelo fight if offered
“He’s [Benavidez] is young at 23.,” said Jose Sr. about Benavidez. “If he were older at 27 or 28, it would be a little bit different. But I would take that fight,” said Jose Sr. on being willing to let Benavidez face Canelo. “When you’re fighting a guy that is a number. ‘Why are you fighting this guy? You should be fighting this guy.’
“Now, if you want to fight somebody good. ‘Nah, man, you’re crazy. You’re not ready for them.’ I don’t understand. We want to give you guys what you want.
“We’re here to represent our people. We want you guys to be proud of us. We’re just training and staying focused to give you guys what you want.
“There’s no secret in how to be the best. You’ve got to go to wars. You got to fight. Even if you have a broken arm or something, you got to go. It doesn’t matter to the people if you’re good or bad as long as you have big balls and come to deliver.
“They love you for that. It doesn’t matter. As long as you give it you’re all, they love you,” said Jose Sr.
IBF super-middleweight champion Caleb Plant surprisingly turned down a fight against Canelo because he didn’t want to jump back into the ring so soon after defining his IBF title against Vincent Feigenbutz.
