By Sean Jones: Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn flat-out denies that Canelo Alvarez is ducking an unbeaten #1 WBC ranked 168-lb contender David Benavidez despite the growing belief among fans that the golden-haired star wants no part of fighting him.
Regardless of what Hearn says, the perception from fans is that Canelo, 31, is AVOIDING the unbeaten former two-time Benavidez (25-0, 22 KOs).
Unfortunately for Hearn, fans believe that Canelo is ducking Benavidez, and there’s nothing he can say or do to alter that perception because it’s fixed and reinforced with each fight for the Mexican star.
Canelo fighting arguably weak champions like Caleb Plant, Billy Joe Saunders, and Rocky Fielding rather than Benavidez gives rise to the belief that he’s ducking Benavidez because fans believe he would easily have beaten all of those former belt-holders.
The evidence Canelo AVOIDING Benavidez:
- Canelo has fought in the same division for four years without facing Benavidez from 2018 to 2022. The Mexican star Canelo could have fought Benavidez in those four years since he moved up to the weight class in 2018, but instead has chosen not to.
- Canelo chose to fight for the WBC 168-lb title immediately AFTER Benavidez lost the title on the scales in his defense against Roamer Alexis Angulo in August 2020. Four months after Benavidez lost his WBC title by coming in overweight, Canelo fought for the vacant WBC belt against Callum Smith in December 2020. The argument that fans had is Canelo could have fought Benavidez while he still held the WBC title, considering he’d held the strap continuously since 2017. Why did Canelo only choose to fight for the WBC 168 after Benavidez was stripped of the belt in 2020? There was a three-year period where Canelo could have fought Benavidez for the WBC belt but didn’t. Why?
- Canelo could have fought Benavidez in 2021 but chose lesser fighters like Avni Yildrim, his old sparring partner who hadn’t fought in two years since 2019 and was coming off a loss to Anthony Dirrell, a former knockout victim of Benavidez. Hearn says Benavidez needs to EARN a fight with Canelo, but who did Yildirim defeat to earn his shot against Canelo in 2021?
- Dmitry Bivol is being picked by Canelo, a fighter less known than Benavidez, who the fans in the U.S haven’t been demanding he fights. The fans in the United States have been pushing for Canelo to fight Benavidez, NOT Bivol, who is viewed by many of them as a belt-holder and not an elite champion at light heavyweight.
- Why is Canelo choosing 40-year-old Gennady Golovkin to fight in September 2022 when there is NO belt to win against the Kazahstan star? Although Golovkin holds the IBF middleweight title, he’ll be moving up to 168 to challenge Canelo in a voluntary defense for the Mexican star. This isn’t a mandatory defense for Canelo against GGG. It’ll be a voluntary defense. Canelo says his opposition needs to have something for him to gain for him to fight them. The question is, what belt will Canelo gain from fighting challenger Golovkin?
Hearn denies Canelo ducking Benavidez
“Benavidez is a brilliant fighter, but I believe they’re doing a bad job with him because who is he fighting? Nobody,” said Eddie Hearn to Fight Hub TV.
“With Canelo, people say, ‘Oh, he ducked [Jermall] Charlo, and he ducked Benavidez.’ Absolute bull s***! Canelo will not duck anyone, but Canelo wants to feel like he’s either gaining something from fighting you or winning a belt or something or earned the fight.
“He looks at Benavidez and looks at Charlo, and he won’t want to say it publicly because he’ll feel like he’s making excuses. But he’s like, ‘Those guys don’t fight anybody,” said Hearn.
Benavidez doesn’t have the same advantages that Canelo possesses in getting obscure belt-holders like the ones the Mexican star beat between 2018 and 2021 at super middleweight.
Canelo was able to get the champions at 168 to fight him one after another because he’s a massive star, and the money they were offered made it worthwhile for them to defend against him.
When you’re a star like Canelo, you can fight ANYBODY literally. Hearn’s comment about Benavidez not fighting “anybody” suggests that he’s not aware of the difficulty that non-stars have in getting belt-holders to defend against him.
Given his years of promoting Demetrius Andrade, Hearn should know the problems talented fighters like Benavidez are up against when trying to get belt-holders to face him.
That fighter is in the same boat as Benavidez, struggling to get belt-holders or any of the big names to fight him. Would these former 168-lb champions willingly fight Andrade: Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant, Rocky Fielding, and Callum Smith? Probably not. Simply put, the reason they fought Canelo is because of the money.
Setting up roadblocks to Canelo vs. Benavidez
“It’s the same with Demetrius. It’s not their fault, but it’s probably Charlo’s fault, but it’s not Benavidez’s fault, and it’s not Andrade’s fault. I believe Benavidez wants to be in big fights, but they’re not delivering for him.
“I know that Demetrius wants to be in big fights. I‘m not sure about Charlo. He’s turned down a lot of big fights.
“They both have a fight coming up, but that’s the plan to put them together,” said Hearn about wanting to put a fight together between Demetrius Andrade and David Benavidez.
“I think Benavidez can be a massive star, and down the road, Canelo vs. Benavidez can be a massive fight if he gets some decent names on his resume to become a massive fight,” said Hearn on Benavidez needing to beat good opponents like Andrade to built a future clash against Canelo.
Well, Hearn can help out the situation with Benavidez getting “decent names” on his resume by setting up the fight between him and Andrade.
If Hearn cares, that’s one way he can help build a far bigger fight between Canelo and Benavidez than the ones the Mexican star has against little-known WBA 175-lb belt-holder and the fading 40-year-old Golovkin, who hasn’t fought any big names since his loss to Canelo in 2018.
