By Sean Jones: Jose Benavidez Sr. says Canelo Alvarez’s time is done, and now David Benavidez is ready to take over for him.
Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) just needs to defeat Caleb Plant on Saturday night and then beat Canelo to officially become the #1 guy at 168. Beating Plant (22-1, 13 KOs) is the easy part because he is at least willing to fight him.
Plant is showing massive courage by taking on Benavidez on Saturday on Showtime PPV at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It’s just too bad Canelo isn’t willing to do the same thing.
Sadly, getting Canelo to agree to a fight with Benavidez is not something that he can control. Canelo is already booked up for the remainder of this year with his fights against John Ryder on May 6th and Dmitry Bivol in September.
The earliest that the Benavidez-Plant winner will get a chance to fight Canelo is next year, and that, of course, will hinge on how things go for Alvarez’s rematch with Bivol in September.
If Canelo gets schooled by Bivol as badly as he did last May in their first fight, he’s undoubtedly going to want to take a tune-up in the first half of 2024.
It’s reasonable to assume that a confidence-builder for Canelo will be someone along the same lines as John Ryder in terms of talent or lack thereof.
“A lot of these fighters we fought, we had a lot of respect and became friends, but this guy, no way. This guy is a bad person,” said Jose Benavidez Sr to Fight Hub TV about Caleb Plant. “We’re here to work, keep progressing, and make history.
“I would never go shake this guy’s hand. Never. This guy has done so much damage to my family and talked so much s**t about my family. At one point, I went up there, and I begged him as a man I am. I said, ‘Please, can you just take the drugs out of this?
“‘Say you’re going to knock him out and say whatever the f**k you want.’ He looked into my eyes and said, ‘You know what, Mr. Benavidez? I’m going to stop that.’ I thanked him so much because that really hurt me.
“He’s damaged my family so much. The next day, he started doing the same s**t. So I will never shake his hand. The most important thing is we’re focused on this fight. It depends on how it goes to make it easier or harder to fight Canelo Alvarez.
“We’re focused on this fight. This fight is super important. We just have to focus on this fight and see what happens. Hopefully, we do great, and the Mexican people want to see this fight. All around the world, they’re going to see this fight [Canelo vs. Benavidez] if David looks impressive.
“If I was Canelo and his trainer, I would do the same thing. I would run from ‘The Mexican Monster’ and try and ignore that,” said Benavidez Sr. when told that Canelo doesn’t seem super motivated to fight Benavidez.
“You can run, but you can’t hide. People want that fight. In order for Canelo to make history. He already made history, but everywhere you go, people ask me about Canelo. They want to see that fight.
“That name of David Benavidez, he’s not going to be able to go to sleep until he fights David Beenavidez, and that’s a little thing he’s going to need to take care of in order to make history. If he doesn’t do that, there’s always going to be that doubt. Why didn’t he fight him.
“To me, Canelo is the best pound-for-pound in the world. It’s going to be so difficult to accomplish what he has in boxing.
“When you’re a champion, there are always going to be young lions who are going to come and want to be world champions and make history. In boxing, we’re going to be in the same position in ten years.
“I think there are going to be other lions that are going to come. I think Canelo’s time is done. It’s our time,” said Benavidez Sr.
