By Vince Dwriter: Undisputed Super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez was feeling generous as he decided to gift fight fans a third bout with his rival Gennadiy “Triple G” Golovkin on September 17, but the problem with the gift was the fact that most fans of the sweet science didn’t request the trilogy fight.
DAZN and Matchroom Boxing committed a total amount of $65 million just for the Canelo-GGG main event, but unfortunately, the fight didn’t deliver from an entertainment standpoint, and the bout didn’t produce adequate pay-per-view numbers. Promoter Eddie Hearn had predicted the trilogy would generate 1 million pay-per-view buys in the U.S., but unfortunately, the event produced approximately 575,000 buys.
Hardcore Canelo fans were satisfied with what they viewed inside the squared circle on September 17, but other fight fans were extremely disappointed. Some fans claim that Triple G is on the decline, and he was doing enough to survive as opposed to going all out for the win.
In the case of Canelo, the theory of his cherry-picking opponents is starting to gain traction. For the past year, active boxers, retired former world champions, boxing fans, and boxing pundits have been making the suggestion for Canelo to fight David Benavidez, but Canelo has turned a deaf ear to the boxing community as he gets irritated when he hears Benavidez’s name.
“Guys, always I say this, you show that video and put whatever you want. When I say I don’t want to fight Mexican is because I represent Mexico, and that’s why, but I don’t care. I fight anybody my entire life. Whether you think I don’t want to fight with one Mexican, Benavidez, but look, I hear his dad talking a lot of sh*t, but look, he’s accomplished nothing, one single champion Anthony Dirrell,” Canelo stated during the post-fight press conference.
Canelo Alvarez (58-2-2, 39 KOs) claims he doesn’t consider fighting David Benavidez because he’s only beaten one champion, but at the same time, in February 2021, Alvarez fought Avni Yildirim, a man who was coming off a two-year layoff, and in his previous February 2019 bout, Yildirim loss to Anthony Dirrell.
Oscar De La Hoya, who used to promote Canelo until their split in 2020, was asked a question on social media, and he gave an honest and direct answer. When asked about a potential Super middleweight clash between Canelo Alvarez and David Benavidez, De La Hoya posted the response: “Canelo will never fight him; he’s too young and talented.”
In his social media post, De La Hoya stated what many boxing fans are starting to realize, and that’s the fact that Canelo doesn’t want any part of Benavidez. Hardcore Canelo fans will say Canelo wants to challenge himself, and that’s why he took the risk to go up to light heavyweight to fight Dmitry Bivol. It sounds good, but the fact of the matter is Canelo loses to Bivol, it’s not an issue because he moved up to chase greatness, but if he loses to Benavidez, he has no excuse.
David Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) possesses great hand speed and good power, and he’s a high-volume puncher. Those three assets are tools that Canelo doesn’t want to see when he’s recruiting a potential opponent. As fight fans, we no longer have to guess if Canelo Alvarez is avoiding Benavidez because it’s becoming painfully obvious that he is avoiding David Benavidez.
The die-hard Canelo fans may present the excuse that the 32-year-old is being selective and he’s utilizing the Mayweather blueprint. If that is true, hopefully, he will follow the part of the blueprint when a 36-year-old Mayweather decided to give the fans what they were asking for when he stepped inside the ring to face a young, strong 23-year-old boxer name Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
