By Dan Ambrose: Deontay Wilder is picking the powerfully built, unbeaten David Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) over Canelo Alvarez for when the two eventually meet up in the near future.
Wilder feels that Benavidez is too “tough” of an opponent for Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) to deal with, and will beat him when the Mexican star finally faces him, which is still not a certainty.
The way that Canelo’s promoter Eddie Hearn was speaking on Monday, there are no plans of making the fight with Benavidez anytime soon.
Hearn has Canelo fighting one of his Matchroom Boxing stable fighters, John ‘The Gorilla’ Ryder (32-5, 18 KOs), next on May 6th, and after that, he’ll be fighting Dmitry Bivol in a rematch.
“That’s going to be a tough one for Canelo. I got Benavidez on that one. I think Benavidez is too big for Canelo. Benavidez is very rough, he’s powerful, and he likes to come,” said Deontay Wilder to Dontae’s Boxing Nation last Saturday night, saying that David Benavidez has too much size for the undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.
According to Hearn, Benavidez is an “easier” fight for Canelo than Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs), which is a valid point in some ways.
Bivol is a better boxer than Benavidez in every department, but Canelo won’t take the same vicious punishment fighting him compared to going up against the ‘Mexican Monster.’ Benavidez will bludgeon Canelo and likely force a corner stoppage.
Benavidez won’t show mercy to Canelo
With Bivol, Canelo only has to worry about being out-boxed because he’s not the type of fighter that goes for knockouts. Indeed, Bivol stayed in first gear during his fight with Canelo last May. The only time Bivol shifted into second gear was in the fifth round when he unleashed a beautiful seven-punch storm of shots that had Canelo close to being stopped.
The referee looked like he could step in and halt the contest because Canelo was getting hit repeatedly to the head by Bivol during that flurry and throwing nothing back to defend himself.
Interestingly, Bivol backed off and seemingly showed mercy to Canelo rather than finishing him. Canelo’s face was reddened & swollen-looking after eating those seven headshots from Bivol during his flurry.
It’s hard to know what went through Bivol’s mind, making him back off and let Canelo survive. Sympathy, maybe? Did Bivol feel he owed Canelo to give him clemency and not go for the coupe de grace finish? Canelo picked Bivol out for that massive payday fight, so did the unbeaten champion not want to finish him out of gratitude?
Some would argue that’s Bivol’s mindset. He lacks the killer instinct that Benavidez possesses. If Benavidez puts Canelo in a similar situation, he’ll bury him with punches and finish the job.
There’s literally no chance that Benavidez will show mercy to Canelo the way Bivol did. No pity will be shown by Benavidez against Canelo.
