Shawn Porter says he doesn’t think David Benavidez needs to fight Canelo Alvarez after his latest sixth round stoppage victory over Demetrius Andrade last Saturday night on Showtime PPV at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas.
The fans already view Benavidez as better than Canelo, so the fight doesn’t have to take place between them, aside from providing a giant payday for the Mexican Monster, which appears to be his & Jose Sr’s true reason for wanting that fight so badly.
The payday that Benavidez & his dad would get from fighting Canelo would be out of this world good, and it helps that their chances of winning are high due to the youth & colossal size advantage.
Porter feels that Canelo (60-2-2, 39 KOs) has no plans on fighting WBC interim super middleweight champion Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs) before he retires.
Shawn points out that Canelo has been fighting for 20 years and has too many fights under his belt to take on a fighter as young, big, and strong as the 26-year-old Benavidez.
Andrade was overmatched by Benavidez
“He slowed down. You can have all the experience that you want. Boo Boo has done everything that you can in boxing except fight at a high level against high competition consistently,” said Shawn Porter to 210BoxingTv, racing to Demetrius Andrade’s loss to David Benavidez last Saturday night at the Michelob Ulrata Arena in Las Vegas.
“The things that you don’t know when you haven’t had to perform at this high level, your mind, that’s exhaustion. Your physical. Your tight, your tense, you’re waiting on that moment, that shot. He wore himself out just as much as David did.”
Andrade was too old and too small to compete with Benavidez, and he made things worse for himself by trying to trade with the much bigger fighter. That sealed his doom when he chose to go to war with the 6’2″ behemoth, who looked like a cruiserweight after he rehydrated.
“Great effort from him, but he was just outmatched. He didn’t have a jab all night,” said Porter. “Who the hell knows what you need against ‘The Monster’ [Benavidez].
“I’ll tell you what I thought was going to happen. I thought it was going to be Jermell Charlo, and then it was going to be Jermall Charlo,” said Porter on what he thinks will fight Canelo Alvarez next in May.
Canelo could face Jaime Munguia next in May, but you never know. If Canelo was impressed with the performance of Jermall last Saturday night with his victory over Jose Benavidez Jr., he could always change his mind, and fans would be interested in seeing that fight.
Munguia will be a hard sell as the opponent for Canelo, but it might not matter. If PBC is willing to give Canelo the money regardless, it won’t matter if it brings in poor PPV ratings. PBC will obviously want to see Canelo fight Benavidez in his third and final fight of his contract with them in September, but we’ll see if he gives them that match or if he chooses a weak opponent like Edgar Berlanga.
“I thought Jermell fought so bad that nobody wanted to see Jermall. I thought Jermall really did fight himself into a fight with Canelo. I think that people more than likely still don’t want to see that fight, but I think that was originally the power of things,” said Porter.
Fans would like to see Canelo fight Jermall, as he’s not someone who will play it safe like his brother, Jermell. Jermall has always been bigger, stronger, and willing to go to war.
Benavidez doesn’t need Canelo
“I think it was supposed to be both Charlo brothers. He [Canelo] was not supposed to lose those, and then you look forward to head what’s next,” said Porter. “I truly think the world wants Benavidez on Canelo’s list, but I don’t think Benavidez is on Canelo’s list.
“It’s too much,” said Porter when asked why he doesn’t see Canelo wanting to fight Benavidez.
Porter might not feel that Benavidez needs Canelo, but he and his dad, Jose Sr., seem to desperately feel the need to face him, which suggests that they want to face him for the massive payday rather than for sporting purposes.
If they were focused on the sport, they wouldn’t be so negative about the idea of fighting David Morrell.
When you’d rather fight a non-belt holder like Caleb Plant, David Lemieux & Andrade rather than WBA ‘regular’ champion Morrell, it makes it transparently clear that you’re just looking to stay in the pipeline for a much-desired life-changing payday against Canelo, which is okay. It’s just that you’d rather the Benavidez’s be open about their real focus – money.
“Benavidez don’t need [Canelo]. Sometimes, you are that much better than somebody, and nobody needs to see it. Sometimes, you’re that good, and people don’t need to see it,” said Porter.
“We know that’s probably the biggest money fight that he [Benavidez] could have, but I just think that he’s better, he’s stronger, and he’s got too much youth. He’s got too much experience, and he’s got too much health,” Porter said.
Porter is right. Benavidez doesn’t need Canelo because the boxing public already views him as superior to the small 5’8″, but only because of his youth and huge size advantage.
If Canelo were 26 and the size of Benavidez, it would be a mismatch because, talent-wise, he’s a better fighter than the Mexican Monster. Benavidez is a fighter who is still young enough to drain down huge amounts of water weight to campaign in a division well below his frame.
When he gets a little older, he’ll have no choice but to fight in divisions relative to his size, which could mean we’ll see him at cruiserweight or heavyweight before long.
“Canelo has been fighting professionally for 20 years. That’s too much mileage, bro. So, go ahead, go on your victory lap, do what you’re going to do. Don’t look at Benavidez,” said Porter about Canelo.
It would be a good idea for Canelo to continue fighting whoever he wants, and put Benavidez on ignore because he’s done enough in his career to where he has earned the right to fight whoever he wants.
Moreover, Benavidez is a guy that some would say is a cheat code due to his ability to drain down to fight in a division he shouldn’t be competing in if he were older. Canelo doesn’t need to be fighting a guy who outweighs him by 15 to 20+ lbs on the night of the fight, as that’s not fair to him.
Moving up to 175 makes sense
“I think it makes sense,” said Porter when asked if Benavidez should vacate his interim WBC super middleweight title and move up to 175 to go after the champions, Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev in that weight division to start campaigning at light heavyweight.
Benavidez may have no other choice but to move up to 175 if he wants to get the big fights, given that the 168-lb division will be pretty much tapped out soon.
Even if Benavidez gets the fight that he had his dad, Jose Sr., want against Canelo, there are only a couple of decent fights in the 168-lb division available to him.
Those are against Jermall Charlo and David Morrell. Jose Sr. is cool to the idea of Benavidez facing Morrell, saying that the Cuban fighter hasn’t faced anyone good enough to raise his profile, which is true because he’s been a professional for four years since 2019 and is only 25.
Assuming that Jose Sr. doesn’t change his mind about his non-interest in Benavdez fighting Morrell, that leaves just Jermall. It won’t matter if Benavidez gets the fight that he wants against Canelo because he’ll make so much money that it won’t be a big deal if he only has one fight left at 168, as he would have enough dough to move up to 175 and sputter around, fighting Dmitry Bivol & Artur Beterbiev.
If Benavidez meets his match against those fighters, it won’t be the end of the world for him. He’ll be rich beyond belief and can afford to afford to suffer losses against opposition his size.
“I don’t know what other names are over there. [David] Morrell is someone that people would like to see against David Benavidez,” said Porter. “I think there’s a lot of competition there. I just think that Benavidez is too much.”
Just because people think Benavidez is too good for certain fighters isn’t an excuse for him not to fight them, because if he’s only going to face guys that fans believe he’ll lose to, those are fights that probably won’t get made anyway.
If Jose Sr. is going to drag his feet at letting him fight Morrell, that could mean that he’s worried, and he’ll do the same thing when he moves up in weight.
“I’m at the point now where I want to see him [Benavidez] in great fights. It was a great fight tonight. Boo Boo was outmatched,” said Porter. “You could see after three rounds that it wasn’t going to go his way.
“He stood in there and did what he had to as a fighter, but Benavidez out-matches everybody. That dude is clearly #3 pound-for-pound. Terence is #1, and the other Monster, Inoue, I got him at #2. Benavidez is clearly #3. He’s only #3 because maybe I got a little too much respect for the other guys, but they’re interchangeable.”
Well, Benavidez won’t be pound-for-pound #1 without him beating Canelo or Morrell because defeating 35-year-old Andrade and perhaps Jermall Charlo won’t be enough to put him at the top. He’s got to defeat Canelo or Morrell, and if not them, Bivol & Beterbiev.
“I don’t even like pound-for-pound. All three of them are #1 to me. With HBO, I got some background on that, and that was just a straight-up business situation,” said Porter. “The situation over here [Showtime Boxing]. The sports department is gone.
“So, it’s not just Showtime Boxing is being x-ed out of Showtime. The entire department is gone. What can you do? Nonetheless, I think there are some big things on the horizon for PBC, and I’m looking forward to it,” said Porter.
We’ll soon see where PBC winds up, but whatever it is, the company is going to need to change the way they do match-ups, because it’s not going to work if their top fighters like Gervonta Davis are fighting guys that stand zero chance of winning.
You’d hate to see PBC poison the well by failing to schedule compelling matchups because that would result in poor ratings.
