David Benavidez dares Jermall Charlo to fight for Canelo title shot

By Boxing News - 06/24/2021 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: David Benavidez wants Jermall Charlo to agree to fight him with the winner to take on the soon to be undisputed super middleweight champion, Canelo Alvarez.

The former two-time WBC 168-lb champion Benavidez (24-1, 21 KOs) says Charlo’s idea of trying to get Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs) to come down in weight to 160 for a fight doesn’t make sense. Canelo isn’t going to do it.

The only chance Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) has of getting a fight against Canelo is to go up to 168, which is something he says he won’t do.

Benavidez feels that if he and Charlo fight it out at 168 for an interim title, their chances of getting a fight against Canelo will be good.

One of the sanctioning bodies will gladly make available an interim title for Benavidez vs. Jermall fight, particularly if they know that Canelo will take on the winner.

Charlo stepped in it recently when he expressed interest in fighting Benavidez. Interestingly, when Benavidez accepted the challenge, Charlo presented a hurdle, saying that he needs to get “vaccinated” first before he’d consider fighting him.

To the fans, it looks like a case of Charlo losing his nerve and choosing to duck the fight with Benavidez.

It’s similar to what we heard from Charlo last weekend when he sent a message to Demetrius Andrade, saying that he needs to beat Juan Macias Montiel before he’d consider giving him a fight

Canelo WON’T return to 160

“I’m coming off a great win over Ronald Ellis three months ago, and I’m still going off the energy of that fight,” said David Benavidez to Fighthype.

Image: David Benavidez dares Jermall Charlo to fight for Canelo title shot

“I know there are big fights over the horizon, but first I have to take care of a tough ex-champion Jose Uzcategui.

“I know he comes to fight. This is my second week of camp and everything is going great. I’m looking forward to finishing the camp strong and giving the fans great fight.

“He said in the last fight, I get hit too much and that he’s going to break my neck, I get hit too much,” said Benavidez about Jermall Charlo.

“But I didn’t get a cut, I didn’t leave the fight with a swollen eye. You seen Charlo, he couldn’t even open his eye. But people talk a lot of s*** because I call out that fight.

“He says he’s not going up to 168, but he keeps calling out Canelo,” continued Benavidez about Jermall.

“Canelo said he’s not going down to 160 anymore, so I don’t know what he’s talking about. He has to go up to 168 if he’s to fight Canelo. Canelo is not going to come down.

“Canelo said he’s not going to go back down to 160 anymore, so it makes no sense [for Charlo to ask him to come back down to middleweight],” Benavidez said.

Canelo might return to 160 if it were to fight an easy mark like Ryota Murata, the WBA middleweight champion. Unfortunately, Murata is about to fight Gennadiy Golovkin in December, and he’s probably going to lose his WBA title in that match-up.

Canelo won’t want to return to the 160-lb division to fight Jermall Charlo because it won’t be an easy fight, and he could lose if he’s weight drained.

Benavidez wants Charlo to fight him for Canelo shot

“But what I proposed to him, you know we’re with the same company, let’s fight the fight,” said Benavidez about wanting Jermall to fight him.

Image: David Benavidez dares Jermall Charlo to fight for Canelo title shot

“Let’s get an interim title or whatever and the winner of that gets Canelo,” Benavidez continued.

“The fight will be that much bigger. Whoever wins out of me and him fights Canelo. I’m not scared of nobody in boxing.

“If you believe in yourself, there should be no problem why this fight shouldn’t be made, and I believe in myself.

“I’ll everything I have in myself 10 ties out of 10 because that’s how much I believe in myself.

“I know a fight with Canelo isn’t going to happen right away. So if I got to go beat whoever I got to beat to get to Canelo, it’s all good with me,” said Benavidez.

It sounds like a great idea Benavidez has for him and Jermall to try and get the fight with Canelo.

Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen. Charlo’s assistance that Benavidez fights him at 160 is going to make it impossible to put the match together. It’s unclear if Charlo truly believes that Canelo will come down to 160 to fight him or not.

If he does, he’s not going to bother fighting Benavidez because he feels he’s going to get the fight with Canelo soon without having to stick his neck out to earn it.

You can’t say the 31-year-old Charlo has earned the fight with Canelo based on his weak resume.

These Charlo’s last eight fights:

  • Juan Macias Montiel
  • Sergiy Derevynchenko
  • Dennis Hogan
  • Brandon Adams
  • Matt Korobov
  • Hugo Centeno Jr
  • Jorge Sebastian Heiland
  • Julian Williams

David wants to give fans great fights

“I’m 24-years-old, I still have a long time to go,” said Benavidez . “I’m not scared of nobody. And I’m here to fight everybody and give the fans the fights they want to see.

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“It’s kind of funny sometimes. You don’t fight nobody, and the fans get mad. But then with me, I call everybody out and want to make the fights happen for the fans, some fans still get mad.

“You can’t please everybody. I want to be a great fighter for my family and the people.

“And with the way they support me, I have to prove them right. so whoever they want to see me fight, I’m willing to fight whoever,” said a fearless-sounding David Benavidez.

It’s probably a lost cause for Benavidez to invest a lot of time and effort trying to get a fight against Jermall Charlo. The writing was already on the wall when Charlo said Benavidez needed to get vaccinated.

But the latest comment that Jermall made about wanting Benavidez to meltdown to 160 to fight him, that told you all you needed to know about whether he’s interested in the fight.

Charlo is doing the same thing with Canelo by asking him to come down to 160 to fight him, and Gennadiy Golovkin, telling him to come and fight him in his hometown of Houston.

Charlo has got to know that these guys will never agree to any of these things. At the same time, Charlo can still shrug his shoulders and tell his fans, ‘Well, I tried to get Canelo, GGG, Andrade, and Benavidez to fight me. They wouldn’t do it.’