By Dan Ambrose: David Benavidez wants to defend his WBC super-middleweight title against Canelo Alvarez, Jermall Charlo, and Caleb Plant shortly. WBA ‘regular’168-pound champ Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs) is the guy that Benavidez (22-0, 19 KOs) is highly interested in battling.
Canelo fights on DAZN, and he’s selective in the type of guys he faces, and Benavidez might be too young. Alvarez has been fighting a lot of older fighters lately, and it would be a significant change for him to take on the 23-year-old Benavidez.
This would be a risky fight for Canelo if he were to face Benavidez, that just doesn’t seem realistic.
IBF champion Caleb Plant is someone that Benavidez wants to face right now, as the two have a lot of bad blood because of the trash-talking. Benavidez says he views Plant as a middleweight, and not as true 168-pounder.
He rates WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo as a bigger puncher than Plant, and more of a test for him. Benavidez still thinks he’d beat Jermall too.
For Benavidez’s next fight, he’s expected to face #15 WBC fringe contender Roamer Alexis Angulo (26-1, 22 KOs) in August. There still isn’t a specific date yet for the fight, but it’s going to take place sometime in August, says Benavidez.
#1 WBC Avni Yildirim was scheduled to face Benavidez on April 14, but he suffered an injury, and the bout couldn’t happen. So instead, the 36-year-old Roamer Angulo has been signed to challenge Benavidez this summer. Benavidez says he sees the Colombian Angulo as a bigger puncher than Yildirim.
Roamer Alexis Angulo next for Benavidez in August
“I think the fight is getting closer. I don’t know what date, but I think it’ll be in August,” said Benavidez to Fighthype on his next fight. “The thing with Yildirim, we were supposed to fight April 14, but he got hurt.
“We brought in Roamer Alexis Angulo. So the contract was already signed with him. He’s a solid fighter, and he’s coming off of a victory over Anthony Sims. I feel like it’s going to be a good fight.
“I think they both have the same style. They’re pressure fighters. He’s similar to Yildirim, but I feel Roamer Angulo is a little bit stronger. I’m looking for a knockout like I do in all my fights. I’m interested in giving the fans a crowd-pleasing performance. I’ve had nine years,” said Benavidez.
The problem with Angulo is he’s not very big, and he has minimal experience against quality opposition. When Angulo stepped up against former WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez in June 2018, he lost a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision.
The 6’1″ Angulo looked way too small for Ramirez in that fight, and it wasn’t competitive. But in Angulo’s last contest, he defeated previously unbeaten Anthony Sims Jr. (20-1, 18 KOs) by a 10 round split decision on January 30. That was quickly the best win of Angulo’s 10-year professional career.
Aside from that bout, the rest of Angulo’s victories have come against obscure opposition in Colombia.
It would ideally be good to see Benavidez beat some higher-ranked contenders that can test him like Azizbek Abdugofurov or Daniel Jacobs. However, Jacobs, like Canelo, has shown no interest in fighting Benavidez, and it’s not likely he’ll start champing at the bit to face him before he retires in a few years. Benavidez is too dangerous, Jacobs.
Benavidez wants Canelo or Caleb Plant
“People are used to seeing me and don’t think I’m 23-years-old,” Benavidez said. “I started so young. And I kind of get left out when people talk about young fighters. Now I’m considered one of the best. I feel like I need to take care of this fight first, and then maybe if Canelo wants to give me an opportunity, I would be all for Canelo.
“The fighter I would want more is Caleb Plant. We’ve got a rivalry. That’s a bad blood fight. If it’s not Caleb Plant, then it’s Billy Joe Saunders, Callum Smith. There are all these great fights to be made at 168. I feel like I’m in a great position to make them all happen,” Benavidez said.
There’s been a lot of talk between Benavidez and Plant (20-0, 12 KOs), but the fight isn’t happening. The management for Caleb and Benavidez is likely waiting for them to become more widespread before they put them in with each other.
It would be smart to wait until Plant and Benavidez have more fans before they fight, but they’re not facing the right opposition to increasing their popularity. Instead of Plant facing the best, we see him milking his IBF title against the like of Mike Lee and Vincent Feigenbutz. It’s the same story with Benavidez. He’s been fighting Anthony Dirrell, J’Leon Love, and Ronald Gavril.
Jermall Charlo fight interests Benavidez
“That would be a great fight for me,” said Benavidez when asked if he’d like to fight Jermall Charlo. If I want to be the greatest of my era, I have to fight all these guys. I don’t care who it is.
“I think Charlo would be a more dangerous fight [than Plant] because he has a lot of experience. And I feel like he has more power. I feel like Caleb Plant belongs at 160.
“He doesn’t belong at 168. He’s fought such weak opposition. He fought Mike Lee after he won the belt, and then he fought Feigenbutz after that fight. So they gave him two extremely weak opponents.
“I feel like Charlo would be the harder opponent, but I feel like I’d beat him too. I think it would be a way more exciting fight with Charlo because we’d both be looking for the knockout,” said Benavidez.
Charlo vs. Benavidez would be a great fight if there were interest on Jermall’s side. There isn’t, though. Charlo is happy with defending his WBC 160-pound title against guys like Denis Hogan and Brandon Adams.
A lot of boxing fans think Charlo is only interested in milking his WBC title, and not ambitious to test himself against guys that can potentially beat him in a 50-50 fight. After Charlo’s close call against Matt Korobov in 2019, he’s been taking it easy in facing soft opposition.
There was talk recently of Jermall Charlo moving up from 160 to go to 168, but that doesn’t appear to be happening. Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs) is staying put at 160 for now, and he probably won’t move up in weight until he can no longer make meltdown to middleweight.
