By Chris Williams: Jermall Charlo let his social media followers know that he wasn’t wowed by David Benavidez’s performance last weekend against Ronald Ellis, and he says he’s trying to fight Canelo Alvarez rather than him.
For all intents and purposes, Ellis exposed Benavidez for having no defense, head movement, and slow hands and feet.
(Photo credit: Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME)
Benavidez (24-0, 21 KOs) looked pedestrian at times with his harder-than-expected 11th round knockout win over Ronald Ellis (18-2-2, 12 KOs) in the headliner on Showtime last Saturday at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut.
The former two-time WBC super middleweight champion Benavidez looked like he’d fallen off a motorcycle with the way his face looked at the end of the fight with Ellis.
Going into the bout, the 24-year-old Benavidez had talked about how easy it was going to be against the 31-year-old Ellis, but it turned out to be anything but.
“Did y’all see that last night? You’re only good as your last performance,” said Jermall Charlo on social media about Benavidez’s unimpressive win over Ronald Ellis. “That s*** is crazy. Y’all stupid as hell.
“I’m trying to fight Canelo Alvarez, alright?” said Charlo.
No one can fault Charlo (31-0, 22 KOs) for him choosing not to waste his time on moving up to 168 to take on Benavidez because he’s clearly not in the same league as him.
Benavidez showed that he’s a tall plodder with no speed and who fights in a strange stand-up manner that you don’t normally see in the upper levels of the sport.
Charlo, when he does move up to super middleweight, he’s got bigger fish to fry than fighting Benavidez because this guy is too green right now. The flaws that Benavidez showed against Ellis aren’t things that can be easily fixed, unfortunately.
I mean, slow hands and feet are things you’re born with, and you can’t change no matter how much time you spend working on them, and Benavidez is clearly stuck with them. If anything, Benavidez will get slower rather than faster with each passing year.
The only reason Jermall would have for fighting Benavidez is to beat him so that he can put pressure on Canelo Alvarez to face him since he’s probably going to continue to duck him for keeps.
If Canelo intended to fight Jermall, he wouldn’t have accepted the Franchise tag in 2019 when Charlo was his WBC mandatory at 160.
Instead of finding courage and taking the fight with Jermall, Canelo circumvented the commitment by accepting the WBC’s Franchise tag. Then he disappeared, moving up to 168 towards the path of least resistance.
If Jermall wants to put some pressure on Canelo, he can move up to 168, take Benavide’s scalp, and then use the victory as a way of making the Mexican star look bad if he chooses to continue to ignore him.
Other than being used as a tool to help Jermall get a fight against Alvarez, Benavidez has no use.
He’s not someone that is a big star, and he’s probably never going to win another world title at 168 as long as Canelo, Billy Joe Saunders, and Caleb Plant are around. Jermall would probably gain more credibility fighting Plant or Saunders than he will Benavidez.
Jermall, 30, is coming off a great win over former two-time world title challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko last year in September on Showtime pay-per-view.
Charlo dominated Derevyanchenko, beating him by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision in a statement fight. That was a work of art that Jermall displayed with his dominating victory over Derevyanchenko.
This is the same Derevyanchenko that arguably beat Gennadiy Golovkin in their clash in 2019. Jermall had too much talent for Derevyanchenko, and it was a one-sided match for the duration.