David Benavidez made his case that Canelo Alvarez must face him next after knocking out the shopworn Demetrius Andrade in the sixth round of a one-sided fight on Saturday night at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas.
WBC interim super middleweight champion Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs) said after tonight’s bout against the 35-year-old Andrade that Canelo has “nobody else to fight” but him, which is obviously untrue.
The reality is Canelo has a lot of fighters that he can face, and he can make a ton of money fighting any of them. Benavidez is just another of the many fighters waiting in the long queue, hoping to be blessed by Canelo for a life-changing payday.
Canelo’s many options
Jaime Munguia
Terence Crawford
Jermall Charlo
Dmitry Bivol
Artur Beterbiev
Edgar Berlanga
Diego Pacheco
Errol Spence
Tim Tszyu
Jaron Ennis
Caleb Plant
David Benavidez
You can argue that Benavidez’s rightful place is near the end of the line to get a fight against Canelo because he’s not proven himself yet, and he’s too big for the 168-lb division. He should be fighting at 175 or cruiserweight. Why should Canelo fight a cruiserweight or a light heavyweight when he’s defending his 168-lb title?
Benavidez needs to prove to Canelo that he deserves the fight because fighting the older, smaller Andrade, who was fighting for just the second time since moving up to 168 since moving up to this weight class last January, it was not a good situation for him.
You’re NOT giving the fans the fights they want to see when you have an old guy like Andrade, who was fighting at 154 just a few years ago. You’re giving them mismatches, pulling shades of their eyes to make you look better than you actually are by fighting weaker opposition.
Benavidez should fight these guys to earn Canelo fight:
1. David Morrell
2. Dmitry Bivol
3. Artur Beterbiev
4. Jai Opetaia
5. Terence Crawford
Benavidez believes he’s got Canelo boxed in
After the fight, Benavidez claimed that he was giving fans the fights they wanted to see. The fans didn’t ask for Benavidez to fight Andrade, nor did they ask him to face David Lemieux, Ronald Ellis, Kyrone Davis, or Caleb Plant. Fans didn’t want those slop fights from Benavidez.
They wanted him to take some real risks by putting his hide on the line against David Morrell, Dmitry Bivol, and Artur Beterbiev, the big three. Why hasn’t Benavidez done that? It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? He doesn’t want to lose and be eliminated from the Canelo sweepstakes.
Those were Benavidez’s choices. Fans wanted Benavidez to fight David Morrell, Dmitry Bivol, and Artur Beterbiev, but he didn’t do it.
“I just look at the facts. People want to see this fight [Canelo Alvarez] more than Carlos Adames and Charlo. That’s why that fight hasn’t happened,” said David Benavidez at tonight’s post-fight press conference after his win over Demetrius Andrade in Las Vegas.
Obviously, boxing fans do want to see Benavidez fight Canelo, but it’s cheap the way that he’s cut corners to try and get the opportunity to take on the ‘Face of Boxing’ because he’s no one really good.
Benavidez turned down a fight with David Morrell, a match-up that would be a 50-50 one he could lose. It would have helped show that Benavidez was deserving of a title shot against the biggest star in boxing, Alvarez.
Benavidez should have followed Canelo’s lead by taking on Dmitry Bivol for his WBA light heavyweight title because it’s not like he’d be undersized against him. We saw last night that Benavidez is bigger than Bivol and would have an identical size advantage as he did against the 35-year-old Andrade.
“I’ve been winning the fights I was supposed to win in fantastic fashion. He [Canelo Alvarez] has nobody else to fight,” said Benavidez about Canelo Alvarez. “If they want to give it to me now, later, or whenever. I’m not going nowhere.”
It’s wishful thinking on Benavidez’s part to blurt that Canelo has “nobody else to fight” because that’s not true. I guess Benavidez hopes that Canelo is listening to him and will think he’s right, not realizing that he’s got a world of options, many of them just as good as fighting him.
Canelo has so many options for fights that could take him all the way to the end of his career, and he doesn’t need Benavidez at all. With that said, if Canelo does fight Benavidez, he would need to make it fair by having a rehydration clause be part of the contract.
You can’t have Benavidez rehydrating to the 190s because Canelo would give away too much size. To make it fair, the secondary weight check needs to be done on the night of the fight, not in the morning, and it needs to be a strict one of 7 to 10 lbs over the weigh-in weight.
So, if Benavidez weighs in at 168, he could be no higher than 175 an hour or two before the fight when they conduct the secondary weight check.
The fine for either fighter being overweight would need to be very high, into the millions, for it to make sense. If it’s just a couple hundred thousand per pound, that’s chicken feed compared to the many millions both fighters will make for this fight.
As such, the fine would have to be in the neighborhood of $5 million to $10 million per pound for it to make either fighter worried about not coming in overweight. In Canelo’s case, he is not likely to rehydrate a huge amount after making weight, so he’s not the one for the secondary weight-check on the night of the fight. It’s Benavidez whole would be impacted.
“I’m going to keep giving you guys the fights that you want to see,” said Benavidez, failing to point out that the 35-year-old Andrade is NOT the fight that fans wanted to see him fight. They wanted him to face David Morrell.
“I just want to say welcome to the David Benavidez era,” said Benavidez in his parting remark at the end of the press conference.
