By Max Seitelman: David Benavidez will be defending his WBC super-middleweight title against #15 WBC Roamer Alexis Angulo in August on Showtime. The anticipated date for the Benavidez vs. Angulo match is August 15 in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to Mike Coppinger.
Benavidez (22-0 19 KOs) was supposed to fight the 36-year-old Colombian Angulo (26-1, 22 KOs) on April 18, but he was moved from that date.
Angulo is a replacement for Benavidez’s originally planned defense against #1 WBC Avni Yildirim (21-2, 12 KOs), but he couldn’t take the fight due to an injury problem.
Roamer Angulo isn’t the guy that boxing fans want to see the 23-year-old Benavidez fight, but it was an easy contest to make during the pandemic. The guys that fans want to see the 6’2″ Benavidez battle are these warriors:
- Caleb Plant
- Callum Smith
- Canelo Alvarez
- Jermall Charlo
- Gennadiy Golovkin
- Daniel Jacobs
Fans want to see Benavidez in action
Many fans aren’t selective at this point about who Benavidez faces next. They just want to see him back in action. The Arizona native Benavidez hasn’t fought in nine months since stopping former WBC 168-pound champion Anthony Dirrell in the ninth round on September 28, 2019, in Los Angeles, California.
If the August 15 date sticks for the Benavidez-Angulo fight, it’ll have been 11 months since Benavidez last fought. In other words, Benavidez is losing a year of his career due to the pandemic interrupting his schedule, delaying his return to the ring.
Benavidez vs. Charlo is a fight that could take place in the future, and it would be an interesting one for the fans. Charlo needs to move up to 168 from the 160-lb division before that match can get made, and he’s not talking about doing that soon.
“Sources: The David Benavidez-Roamer Alexis Angulo super middleweight title fight, originally scheduled for April 18 in Phoenix, is being rescheduled for August and will headline on Showtime. The card could land Aug. 15 in Las Vegas,” said @MikeCoppinger.
Angulo beat Anthony Sims Jr (20-1, 18 KOs) by a 10 round split decision in his last fight on January 30 in Miami, Florida. The win for the heavy-handed Angulo surprised a lot of people in boxing because he’d been beaten soundly by former WBO 168-pound champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez by a 12 round unanimous decision in June 2018.
David Benavidez wants the big names
Ramirez, 6’2″, looked like a light-heavyweight against the 6’1″ Angulo. Even though both fighters are close to the same height, Ramirez looked a lot heavier in the ring. The size difference between Ramirez and Angulo was shocking. Angulo was like a middleweight going up against a light-heavyweight in Ramirez.
It’s not surprising that the 29-year-old Ramirez (40-0, 26 KOs) moved up to 175 in April 2019 in beating Tommy Karpancy by a fourth-round knockout. Unfortunately, Ramirez has been the invisible man since, sitting out of the ring now for the past 14 months. With no fights scheduled, Ramirez’s career is in a stall.
Benavidez wants to take on the big names at 168. He wants Canelo and Plant, but none of those matches will take place in 2020. If things go right for Benavidez, he could face Plant in 2021.
But that would require that fans be allowed back into live sporting events. It doesn’t look that’s going to happen based on the latest news on the damage the virus is doing in the U.S.
