Trainer Jose Benavidez Jr. jokingly says Terence Crawford should take on his son David Benavidez after his fight with Demetrius Andrade this Saturday, November 25th.
Jose Sr. seems to resent that Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) has started calling out the undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo (60-2-2, 39 KOs) and is attempting to cut in line in front of Benavidez to get the lucrative “payday.”
Benavidez & Jose Sr. have been hounding Canelo night & day, practically begging for a fight with him, and ignored like they were a pair of annoying houseflies.
Canelo is more of a businessman at this stage of his long career than a sportsman, and if he and his trainer/manager, Eddy Reynoso, feel that Crawford is the way to make the most money, they’ll probably go in that direction.
Benavidez & Jose Jr. have clearly gotten on Canelo’s nerves and have not endeared themselves to him with the way they’ve gone about trying to get a fight against him.
That’s not the way to get a fight against Canelo, as he’s stubborn and doesn’t respond well to pressure from fighters looking to use him for a payday and launching pad to turn themselves into a star.
Would Crawford fight Benavidez to get Canelo?
“Let’s try to fight Crawford against David Benavidez after this fight [Demetrius Andrade]. Let’s make it happen,” said Jose Benavidez Sr. to Fight Hub TV about his wanting Terence Crawford to take on his son, WBC interim super middleweight champion David Benavidez, after this Saturday’s contest against Demetrius Andrade.
With how Benavidez looked in his last fight against Caleb ‘Sweethands’ Plant last March, the oddsmakers would likely install Crawford as the favorite to beat him.
Plant made Benavidez look like an unskilled oaf in the first half of that fight before he gassed, and you can only imagine what Crawford would do to him with his superior stamina, outstanding skills, and excellent counter-punching ability. It wouldn’t be a fair fight, and Benavidez’s career would be a dumpster fire.
“Everybody is doing it for the money. Now, if you mention Crawford to fight David Benavidez, they’re not going to want to do it,” said Benavidez Sr. “Why are they [Team Crawford, trying to fight Canelo Alvarez] doing it? They’re doing it for the money.
“Anybody from 118 to 168 will fight Canelo. It’s just for money. It’s not fair; it’s not an even fight. I just think he would beat Crawford. He’s a good fighter, he’s a really good fighter, but it’s three divisions. Those power shots are bigger.”
Crawford would have an excellent chance against Canelo because his skills are on another level, and he’s physically younger. Although the 36-year-old Crawford is technically three years older than the 33-year-old Canelo, he’s fighting at a higher level and is still at the zenith of his career.
You can’t say the same about Canelo after watching his performances in his last three fights against these fighters:
– Jermell Charlo
– John Ryder
– Gennadiy Golovkin
– Dmitry Bivol
“Yeah, he beat Errol Spence, but I don’t think Errol was the same after he had that accident [in October 2019],” said Jose Sr. about Crawford. “Let’s watch another fight with a good fighter, and then let’s see if he’s [Crawford] the truth at 154 now.
“I think he’s good, but he has to keep proving himself like Canelo. Once you’re at that level right there, you have to keep fighting nothing but good people, and people who are going to give you challenges and fighters who are good fighters,” said Jose Sr.
If Benavidez Sr. really wants to see Crawford prove himself, he needs to get on his soapbox and start campaigning to have him matched against his son, David.
That’s a fight that will prove whether Crawford deserves a fight with Canelo, and it would do the same for Benavidez, whose resume is pathetically weak from top to bottom.
Benavidez’s best career wins:
- Caleb Plant – *recently knocked out by Canelo
- Anthony Dirrell – 38-years-old
- David Lemieux
- Ronald Ellis
- Rogelio Medina
- Roamer Alexis Angulo
- Ronald Gavril
Crawford lacks power for 168 division
“Yeah, what I’m thinking is that Crawford is a really good fighter, but he doesn’t have that power for three divisions to stop Canelo,” said Benavidez Jr. “But like I said, it’s all about money. These guys want ‘Payday.’ They do want payday, you know? That, I can say, is a payday.”
Those shots that Crawford was hitting Errol Spence and David Avanesyan with they’d knock out Benavidez or Canelo. It’s not as if their heads are physically any different than the average human being.
If you get hit by someone with Crawford’s power for nine long rounds, you will get knocked out. That’s just the physical reality of it. Even the smallish Naoya Inoue could do damage to Benavidez & Canelo’s chin if he loaded up on his powerful & difficult to see shots and landed with full force.
“I don’t think it [Canelo vs. Crawford] would even do good numbers because there’s no challenge there,” said Benavidez Sr. “Look what he [Canelo] did with [Jermell] Charlo. The numbers weren’t that good. So why keep doing that? Do people [promoters] want to keep losing money?”
Jose Sr. is dead wrong about his belief that Canelo vs. Crawford wouldn’t do good PPV numbers. It’s unclear if he’s intentionally being obtuse or if he’s naturally slow on the uptake.
Of course, Canelo-Crawford would do tremendous PPV numbers in the U.S., as that’s a fight that many would like to see because Crawford has become a star in the last few years, especially after his victory over Spence. The fight might not do as well as the Canelo-Benavidez match-up, but Canelo wouldn’t be taking on what is essentially a light heavyweight, either.
Benavidez is more of a light heavyweight or cruiserweight at this stage of his career, and it wouldn’t make sense for Canelo to fight him without a strict 10 lbs rehydration clause to keep him from ballooning up to the 190s after the weigh-in.
The secondary weigh-in would need to occur late in the afternoon on the fight date to ensure Benavidez doesn’t have time to pile on the pounds.
“No matter what happens with Boo Boo, let’s do David against Canelo. That’s a good fight. But I think the winner of this fight, David & Boo Boo, should get Canelo,” said Jose Sr.
This sounds like begging from Benavidez Sr, doesn’t it?
“They proved themselves and done everything they could. I think whoever wins will be the best at 168 to face Canelo. David has been the mandatory and interim champion [with WBC] for two years. But like I said, we’re focused on Boo Boo on November 25th, and let’s see what happens,” said Benavidez Sr.
