By Dan Ambrose: David Benavidez’s promoter Sampson Lewkowicz says Canelo Alvarez is NOT one of the options for his young star’s next fight in November following his third-round blowout victory over David Lemieux last Saturday night.
Lewkowicz doubts that the former four-division world champion Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) will ever fight again after his loss to Dmitry Bivol on May 7th.
If Canelo does resume his career, Lewkowicz believes it’ll be against 40-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin, but NOT Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs).
Although the walls are rapidly closing in on Canelo to force him to fight Benavidez eventually, he still has wriggle room to delay the fight.
There are three fights that Canelo will take before he’s boxed, and he has no other option but to face Benavidez.
Canelo will likely fight these three before he has no other choice but to face Benavidez: Gennadiy Golovkin, Dmitry Bivol & Jermall Charlo.
Lewkowicz lists three options for Benavidez’s next fight:
- Caleb Plant
- David Morrell Jr
- Jermall Charlo
Of those three, Lewkowicz believes former IBF super-middleweight champion Caleb ‘Sweethands’ Plant (21-1, 12 KOs) is the most likely one to wind up facing Benavidez in November.
“What I’m saying is precisely the truth, and I want everybody to put that on black & white,” said Benavidez’s promoter Sampson Lewkowicz at the post-fight press conference last Saturday night.
“We have three options for November. The first option is [Caleb] Plant. The second option is [David] Morrell, and the third one is [Jermall] Charlo. There is no other one.
“Canelo doesn’t happen, so don’t continue to fantasize, all of you, on Canelo. He will NOT take a step ahead to fight the REAL champion, the champion of the people. So let’s not talk anymore about Canelo. It doesn’t exist, and he looks so bad [after loss to Dmitry Bivol], I don’t believe he’ll come back.
“Maybe he’ll take a 40-year-old man [Gennadiy Golovkin], but besides that, he will NOT do nothing else. So please, don’t take any more about Canelo. It doesn’t happen, and it will NEVER happen most likely,” said Lewkowicz, believing that Canelo may never fight Benavidez.
Lewkowicz could be correct about his suspicion that Canelo will choose not to fight Benavidez, and it’s an obvious scenario.
One big reason why Canelo may never fight Benavidez is that he could lose to one or all three of his next opponents. Canelo looked dreadful in losing to WBA 175-lb champion Bivol on May 7th.
It doesn’t require a genius like Albert Einstein to tell you that Canelo will likely lose to Bivol in the rematch if he dares to take one. Golovkin has a chance to beat Canelo because all he has to do is follow the blueprint created by Bivol.
He exposed that Canelo shells up when his opponents throw combinations, and he’s unable to counter them. The only time Canelo is capable of countering is when his opponents throw single shots, as we saw in his two fights with Golovkin.
The Kazakhstan fighter was throwing only one punch at a time, which enabled Canelo to counter effectively. To beat Canelo, you must overwhelm his defense by throwing sustained combinations.
That flaw has been there from day one in Canelo’s career, but the trainers for his opposition have been blind to spot it. If Golovkin throws sustained combinations the way Bivol did, he will beat Canelo on September 17th.
The only question is, does Golovkin have the gas tank to throw combinations? This writer doubts it. As tired as Golovkin looked in his last fight against Ryota Murata on April 9th, he probably isn’t capable of throwing more than one punch t a time without fully gassing out.
“There are three guys that deserve to fight. I imagine Plant is the best one because it’s personal for a long time [between him and Benavidez].
“If you really want a fight, he’d be ready for Plant, for Morrell, he talks too much, and Charlo. Charlo deserves to make a decision that would be a hard one to make, but it’s a real pay-per-view. So let’s not talk anymore about Canelo,” said an exasperated-sounding Lewkowicz.
