By Dan Ambrose: David Benavidez is angry at Canelo Alvarez for continuing to avoid fighting him and not even replying to a lucrative offer from his promoter for a mega-fight between them.
Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) says he wants Canelo to tell him point-blank that he’s never going to fight him, so he can then move up to 175 to begin campaigning at light heavyweight.
Benavidez, 26, is upset that he’s not getting a title shot against Canelo, even though he’s been his WBC mandatory for two years.
The World Boxing Council hasn’t ordered the fight for some reason, but they’re likely holding back because Canelo (59-2-2 39 KOs) will probably vacate if they order it. That means the sanctioning body they were getting from him would be gone.
It would be a good idea for Benavidez to get the hint and recognize that Canelo will NEVER fight him because fans already know that.
The way that Benavidez is just hanging around, waiting & hoping that one day Canelo will fight makes him appear slow on the uptake. If Canelo hasn’t fought Benavidez by now, it’s safe to say he’s not going to. ‘The Mexican Monster’ is too needy & desperate for his own good.
It would be far better for Benavidez to move up to 175 and go after the champions Dmitry Bivol & Artur Beterbiev. The only problem with that idea is the likelihood that he would lose to those guys.
Still, Benavidez can at least fight for world titles at 175, which is more than what he’s doing at 168, seeing that he’s being frozen out by Canelo.
Benavidez’s trash-talking dad, Jose Sr, hasn’t helped because he’s unloaded on Canelo with constant criticism over the years. You can bet that Canelo has been keeping score, and he won’t want to help Benavidez and his dad by agreeing to fight after all the things he’s heard.
“Fight now, I’m just trying to do my job to train as hard as I can and make the biggest fights happen possible. Why are you afraid of me? I don’t know what else to tell him, bro,” said David Benavidez to Fighthype about Canelo Alvarez.
“Everybody wants to see the fight. I think the walls are kind of closing in on him because you see everybody, Mike Tyson, Julio Cesar Chavez, and Juan Manuel Marquez.
“Everybody wants to see this fight. Not just the boxing world. Everybody else. You got other celebrities, other athletes that want to see the fight.
“So if he’s the best and I’ve been mandatory for three years to fight for the WBC title and there’s still the fight’s not happening. I thought Champions were supposed to fight their mandatories.
“He fought the mandatory for the WBC when he fought Yildirim. He took a mandatory no problem. I don’t know. I don’t want to say that. I really don’t pay attention to that, but I mean, he’s, I don’t know. The only thing I’m really worried about is if he’s going to fight me or not.
“If he’s not going to fight me, just let me know. I’ll go up to 175. We got to see what’s going to happen. My plan is to still continue to train and continue to beat everybody. You know, when I was little, my only goal wasn’t just to fight Canelo.
“My goal was to win all the belts, unified world champion, and that’s the opportunity they’re depriving me of because I’m the number one contender to fight Canelo. He has all the belts. That’s my dream to be the unified world champion, and they don’t want to give it to me. I don’t know,” said Benavidez.
