By Chris Williams: Mikey Garcia is giving WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez the edge over Jermall Charlo when the two battle it out. The former two-division world champion Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs) revealed last week that he plans on moving up to 168 to go after the 23-year-old Benavidez (22-0, 19 KOs) for his WBC title.
If Charlo, 29, can add Benavidez’s scalp and his growing collection of fine pelts, he’ll be able to his WBC strap to force the champions like Canelo Alvarez, Caleb Plant, and Billy Joe Saunders to face him. Thus far, Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs) hasn’t shown the least amount of interest in taking on the talented Charlo.
Some boxing fans believe Canelo is scared of Charlo and wants to avoid him at all costs. What reinforces this belief is the fact that Canelo chose not to defend his WBC middleweight title against Charlo when he was his mandatory.
Rather than do the right thing and face Charlo, Canelo accepted the WBC’s Franchise tag that given to him.
Benavidez won’t have a huge advantage
“I saw a little about someone matching them up, but I don’t know,” said Mikey Garcia to Fighthype on a fight between Jermall Charlo and David Benavidez at 168. “It’s not impossible for him [Jermall] to move up because it’s not as if he’ll be at a huge disadvantage.”
The size advantage of the 6’1 1/2″ Benavidez over the 6’0″ Charlo won’t be what he’s accustomed to having over his opponents. Benavidez is often much bigger than his opponents, and this allows him to his superior size to bully his opponents with his clubby shots. Moreover, Benavidez has always been the harder puncher during his short career over the limited opposition he’s faced.
Against Charlo, Benavidez won’t be the bigger puncher, and, of course, he won’t possess the faster hand speed. Benavidez lacks hand speed. He wins his fights by using his size and power advantage to pressure his opponents and slowly break them down with clubbing shots to the head and body.
You can compare Benavidez with George Foreman with the way he fights. He’s kind of straight up and down a fighter, who plods forward, looking to use his sledgehammer blows to wear down his opponents.
Benavidez’s best wins have come against these fighters:
- Ronald Gavril
- Anthony Dirrell
- Denis Douglin
- Rogelio ‘Porky’ Medina
- Francy Ntetu
Charlo moving up to his third weight class
“I think it’ll be a good match-up and a challenge for him in moving up a weight class [to super middleweight],” said Mikey about Jermall moving up to 168.
“That would be a third weight class that he ould be fighting at,’ said Mikey about the 6-foot Charlo, who started his career at 154 in 2008. “It would be a good fight and a good challenge for both fighters, not just Charlo.”
It’s NOT a big deal as Mikey thinks it is for Charlo to be moving up to super middleweight. The size difference between the guys Charlo has been fighting at 154 and 160 isn’t much different than what he’ll be dealing with already.
Nowadays, the fighters tend to rehydrate a considerable amount of weight, so Charlo has already been fighting super middleweights.
If anything, Benavidez will have more problems with Charlo than vice versa because he’s going to be facing a guy with a big speed advantage over him and with slightly better power. Charlo hits harder than Benavidez, and he throws shots from different angles. His punch arsenal is superior to that of Benavidez.
Mikey: Benavidez has something to prove
“Benavidez being so young and hungry, he would want to show everybody he is one of the best fighters, and he needs those kinds of fights that will generate the buzz. I think that’s what it’s all about. They’re [Charlo and Benavidez] young.
“I would want to see something like that. It’s not as if one of them is at the end of their career or one is completely out of their league,” said Mikey on a potential fight between Benavidez and Charlo. “No, it’s not like that.
Benavidez has a lot to prove at 168 for him to stake the claim as the #1 fighter in the division. A lot of people believe that IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant would make Benavidez look silly, and beat the brakes off of him in a one-sided fashion.
In the meantime, it would be good to see how Benavidez does against Charlo. If Benavidez can pass that test, then he would be ready to move forward to take on the highly skilled Plant. Benavidez and Plant are the class at 168. WBA champions Canelo Alvarez and Callum Smith are too flawed.
Benavidez looked terrible in his two fights against Ronald Gavril, and he arguably should have lost the first one in September 2017. Gavril was able to land a lot of headshots against the slower Benavidez, and he made it tough on him.
Although Benavidez edged it on the scorecards in winning a 12 round split decision, a lot of boxing fans saw him getting a gift decision. If Gavril had the punching power of Jermall Charlo, Benavidez would have indeed lost both fights against him. Benavidez was getting hit way too often against Gavril for him to do well against a puncher like Charlo.
Benavidez has edge over Charlo – Mikey
“I think I’m going to edge Benavidez,” said Mikey in picking him to beat Charlo. “I’m giving him the edge because he’s naturally bigger and that does take into effect. But the skill levels are still there, and Charlo can still do something. Yeah, the size, Benavidez has a little bit of an edge in that in that one.
“I don’t know if there would be a stoppage,” Mikey said when asked if Charlo vs. Benavidez ends by knockout. “It would be a very good fight. For Benavidez,” said Mikey in response to the question, ‘You are leaning towards Benavidez because it’s his natural weight.’
It won’t be much of an advantage for Benavidez over Charlo, who is a super middleweight in terms of his size and frame. Charlo has more than enough mass to matchup with Benavidez, and his hands are faster.
It was troubling to watch a past his prime 35-year-old Anthony Dirrell bouncing big lefts and rights off the chin of Benavidez last September. The arguably over-the-hill Dirrell was making Benavidez miss all night long, and nailing him with shots. Unfortunately for Dirrell, he suffered a bad cut over his right eye, which eventually resulted in the fight being stopped in round nine.
Dirrell has heavy hands, but he lacks the explosive power that Charlo possesses, and he doesn’t have his speed. If Charlo can land those same shots that Dirrell did on Benavidez, he’s going to hurt him and possibly score an early knockout.
