By Sean Jones: David Benavidez says he saw flaws in Canelo Alvarez’s game last weekend in his fight with Billy Joe Saunders that he believes he can exploit.
The former two-time WBC super middleweight champion Benavidez (24-0, 21 KOs) believes he’s the guy to beat Canelo and knock him out when he’s finally allowed to face him.
Thus far, Canelo has arguably avoided the 6’2″ young gun Benavidez but won’t be able to do it for much longer without it becoming totally obvious to the boxing world.
The 24-year-old Benavidez will be looking to force Canelo’s hand in his next fight when he takes on former IBF 168-lb champion Jose Uzcategui (30-4, 25 KOs) on August 28th in a WBC super middleweight title eliminator.
Obviously, it would have been better if the World Boxing Council had sanctioned a fight between Benavidez and Carlos Gongora for the eliminator.
It doesn’t matter. If Benavidez beats Uzcategui, he’ll be recognized as Canelo’s mandatory, which will force him to an important decision. To flee or fight.
With a victory over the 30-year-old Uzcategui in their headliner on Showtime Boxing on August 28th, Benavidez will be the WBC mandatory for Canelo’s WBC 168-lb title.
Unless Canelo vacates his WBC title or uses his Franchise tag to avoid Benavidez, he’ll be required to fight him.
Given that Canelo defended against WBC mandatory Avni Yildirim last February, it won’t fly with fans if he chooses not to face Benavidez if he becomes his mandatory.
Benavidez says he can beat Canelo
“I feel like I can beat him. I saw a lot of things that I know I can take advantage of,” said David Benavidez to Fighthub when asked his thoughts on a fight between him and Canelo after watching his fight with Saunders.
“The thing is about Canelo’s opponents, and they haven’t had power. The last ones [Saunders and Avni Yildirim] didn’t have power.
You need the power to keep Canelo off of you. Otherwise, he’s going to be there all night, and that’s the thing about me. I feel like I’m the hardest hitter at 168.
“I got 24 wins with 21 knockouts, so I got the goods to give Canelo a great fight. I’ve got a great jab, great body shots, and great speed, and I put a lot of pressure too. I feel like that’s the type of fighter Canelo is.
“He hasn’t had an opponent that gives him trouble like that, and they all kind of seem to be defeated. They come in there like they’re already beaten.
“With me, it’s going to be the exact opposite. I have a lot of confidence, I’m very motivated in myself, and I know I’m going to be the one that beats Canelo,” said Benavidez.
It was obvious what Canelo’s flaws in his fight with Saunders last Saturday night in Arlington, Texas.
We saw clearly that Canelo’s stamina has worsened in the last three years since his rematch with Gennadiy Golovkin, and he’s now a fighter with a very, very low work rate who loads up on everything.
Benavidez would give Canelo pure trouble with his high work rate, and it would be impossible for the 30-year-old superstar to match him.
Canelo would obviously work hard with his trainer Eddy Reynoso to increase his work rate if he were to fight Benavidez, but it’s physically impossible for him to do so.
It’s like asking an 800-meter runner to compete in a 100-meter sprint in track. Canelo can’t increase his Adrien Broner-esque punch output to match that of the younger lion Benavidez.
Hence, it’s quite clear that Canelo will continue to avoid Benavidez, and we’ll see that on display when he vacates his WBC title or uses his Franchise tag to swerve him.
David says Canelo won’t be able to push him around
“I know a lot of people think Canelo will beat me, but that just makes me want to work harder to get the victory and shut all the haters up,” said Benavidez.
“I’m just excited and waiting for my opportunity, but as I said, I’m going to be the one that beats Canelo. I don’t care where I fight him; I just want to get in the ring with him. Texas would be great.
“That would be a dream to fight [Canelo] in front of 73,000 people. You got two Mexican fighters; I don’t see why we wouldn’t be able to fill the stadium out.
“Yeah,” said Benavidez when asked if he’d fight Canelo in an 18-foot ring.”I don’t get backed up too much. That’s the thing about me; I don’t let people push me to the ropes.
“He [Canelo] can try; I’d love to see him try. I feel like the difference between me and the other guys he’s fought is I’m more powerful than all the guys he’s fought,” Benavidez said.
There’s little chance that Canelo would be able to back Benavidez up the way he did the flawed super middleweight champions, Saunders and Callum Smith.
Benavidez won’t back off from Canelo, and it won’t work for the star to hit him on his arms the way he did against the punching bag-like Callum. David won’t shell up the way Callum did in his fight with Canelo.
Smith did the same thing against John Ryder, so it’s not as if Canelo did anything great to bring that reaction out of him. We’d already seen it before from Callum, who has no ability to fight on the inside whatsoever. That might explain why Canelo was so eager to fight Callum.
He obviously spotted the big Brit’s flaws and 3000 miles away and chose to fight him rather than risk his neck against Benavidez, Golovkin, Artur Beterbiev, Demetrius Andrade, Dimitry Bivol, or Carlos Gongora.
Benavidez confident he can hurt Canelo
“We just have to see how he reacts to the punches,” said Benavidez about Canelo. “I know that if I hit someone on the sweet spot, it doesn’t matter who he is.
“So if I hit him with the right body shot, the right hook, or uppercuts, I know I can hurt that guy. Another thing with me too, I have a good jab.
“He [Canelo] hasn’t fought anyone with a good jab [lately], and that’s why Canelo can in and do what he wants to do because nobody keeps him off of them.
“Nobody throws a jab; nobody keeps him at a distance. So there’s a lot of things that I would do to back Canelo up with my power shots and my body shots.
“I’m very confident about what I can do to him. That’s one of the keys when you fight Canelo. You have to be consistent with the jab.
“My jab is like a right hand; I hurt people with jabs. I know a lot of the things I do can potentially hurt Canelo. I sparred Golovkin for four years from [age] 15 to 19,” said Benavidez.
With Benavidez’s power, high work rate, stamina, and youth, he can definitely hurt and stop Canelo. It’s a bad style match-up for Canelo, and it’s going to get worse the longer he delays making that fight.
Canelo is NOT improving, as some boxing fans and members of the media maintain.
If you look at Canelo’s last fight with Golovkin in 2018 and compare it to what he showed in his last three fights with Saunders, Yildirim, and Callum, you can see clearly that he’s aged and is no longer capable of putting punches together without needing rest breaks.
The 2018 version of Canelo would destroy the 2021 version with ease. Okay, so Canelo is not getting better, and because of that, he’s going to be in for a world of hurt if he delays the fight with Benavidez for two to three years.
With the rapid rate of deterioration we see from Canelo, he’s going to get wiped out if he waits until 2023 or 2024 before fighting Benavidez.
I hate to say it, but Canelo is aging rapidly like his brother Rigoberto Alvarez, a decent pro fighter, but his career went downhill when he started aging after 11 years in the sport.
It didn’t appear to be ring-wear that led to Rigoberto losing it. He aged physically and started losing all of a sudden. Some people age faster than others in life. That’s just the way it is, unfortunately.
Canelo might fall into the category of a person who ages fast, which means he could be in for a world of hurt if he waits much longer before fighting Benavidez.
Sean Jones sees the same thing with Canelo with the aging, and it’s going to worsen, believe me. That’s why he needs to fight Benavidez now before it’s too late.
