By Sean Jones: Trainer Jose Benavidez Sr. says Canelo Alvarez is “scared” to fight his son David Benavidez because he knows he’ll lose to him. Jose believes the 31-year-old Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs) has lost his focus on boxing because he’s playing frequent golf, has a lot of side businesses, and is wealthy beyond belief.
Benavidez Sr. is an unhappy camper, nothing that Canelo has seemingly been swerving his son for the last four years since moving up to 168 in 2018.
On Wednesday, it was revealed that Canelo is on the verge of singing a two-fight, $85 million guaranteed deal for him to face Dmitry Bivol on May 7th and Gennadiy Golovkin on September 17th.
Golovkin, at one time a great fighter, is turning 40-years-old in April and has fought only three times in the last four years.
The only quality guy that Golovkin has fought since 2018, Sergiy Derevyanchenko, came close to beating him.
To show how much Golovkin has lost from his game, Jermall Charlo fought Derevyanchenko shortly after that and easily beat him.
Benavidez Sr. would have preferred that David be one of the two fighters that Canelo is facing this year instead of Bivol orGolovkin, but unfortunately, it’s not going to happen.
So instead of facing the hungry young lion in former two-time WBC super middleweight champion Benavidez (25-0, 22 KOs), Canelo is taking lesser threats, according to Benavidez Sr.
Canelo will have to fight Benavidez
“If [David] Lemieux beats David, he gets the Canelo fight right away,” said Benavidez Sr. to Fighthype. “If we beat Lemieux, we don’t get the Canelo fight. David is only 25-years-old. We’re NOT chasing Canelo.
“Canelo might jump to 175. If he stays at 168, he has to fight David. There’s no [other way]. Everybody wants that fight. I believe the more experience David gets, and the more years that pass by, he’s going to be more dangerous for Canelo,” said Benavidez Sr.
If Canelo stays at 168, he doesn’t have to fight Benavidez because he’ll have an endless supply of beatable contenders that he’ll be able to defend against well into his 40s. None of them would be risky fights for Canelo.
Benavidez is fighting David Lemieux next in a WBC title eliminator at 168, but that could prove to be a waste of time on his part.
Canelo can always vacate the WBC if the sanctioning body attempts to force him to fight Benavidez, and he likely will.
“The time for Canelo to fight David is now because otherwise, he’s going to get stronger and bigger,” said Benavidez Sr. “I don’t think there’s a chance he’ll fight David. He doesn’t want to fight David because he knows he’s hungry.
“He knows he’s a dangerous fight for him right now because right now it’s business. I don’t blame him for that. I think he wants to secure wins and get paid. He will not fight David; he does not want to fight David.
“David is only 25. He’s [Canelo] going to have to retire. Hopefully, he doesn’t stay at 168 because he;’s going to feel that pressure that he has to fight David.
If David has to go to 175, he’s still going to be there,” said Benavidez Sr. on Canelo.
It’ll be interesting to see if Benavidez chooses to follow Canelo up to 175. The time for Benavidez to be making the move to175 is NOW because if he can get his hands on one of the titles at light heavyweight, he’ll have the perfect bait to catch him finally.
That idea might not work if Benavidez can’t beat IBF/WBC 175-lb champion Artur Beterbiev or WBO champion Joe Smith Jr.
Benavidez Sr: Canelo is SCARED of David
“When you say that he [Benavidez] has nothing to offer, that tells me they’re scared,” said Benavidez Sr. “You don’t want to fight him. They don’t want to risk losing. I feel happy when I hear that because if he didn’t have that much easy money, payday.
“There would be no doubts in people’s minds. Once you beat David, you’re the King. If he’s so easy, why don’t you come and get him? You make history,” said Benavidez Sr.
It sure looks like Canelo is scared of Benavidez, but that doesn’t change anything. Even if Canelo is afraid of Benavidez, he can’t force him to give him a fight.
“Canelo, I don’t think he’s as focused as he was a year ago,” said Benavidez Sr. “He’s making a lot of money; he has all these other businesses. He’s playing golf. You can only be good at one thing. So right now, I think his passion is golf.
“That’s a distraction. We’re focused 100% on boxing. You can’t do everything. I believe there are distractions there, so that’s an advantage for us.
“That’s he doesn’t want to take that fight. He knows David is 100% doing boxing, and he’s a little bit distracted on other things. Plus, he’s getting older,” said Benavidez Sr.
Alvarez has fought guys on their way out
“So who has he really fought? These guys were on their way out,” said Benavidez Sr. on Canelo fighting a bunch of old guys and paper champions. “Why not fight a young lion?
“That tells me something. Why doesn’t he want to fight David Benavidez? Because they know he’s a dangerous fighter. Why not fight David Benavidez? Why?
“Canelo knows, and Eddy Reynoso knows that they cannot beat David. There’s a very big possibility he could lose. It’s a very dangerous fight. So why take that fight? He can take these other fights where he’s going to get paid guaranteed.
“If you ask a Mexican if he’s [Canelo] a great Mexican champion, they’ll tell you the opposite. He will not get the respect of the Mexican people until he fights the challengers that are willing to fight him.
“When you’re a champion, you’re going to have all these young challengers that are going to want to fight you, and you’ve got to fight them.
“Now what they do is they choose their opponents against whoever they think they’re going to win. In the eyes of the Mexican people, you will never be a great champion.
“You got to beat the challengers,” said Benavidez Sr in pointing out that Canelo is picking his opponents well.
Canelo isn’t just fighting old guys, as Benavidez Sr. says. He’s some old guys like Golovkin, Sergey Kovalev, and Daniel Jacobs, but what he’s mostly doing is targeting flawed champions from England and now Eastern Europe.
