David Benavidez’s promoter is bummed out about Canelo Alvarez not giving his fighter a chance to fight him in 2024.
The unbeaten Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs) must now decide whether to continue to invest time and effort, waiting for a shot at Canelo and the massive money that would come from that fight, or move up to light heavyweight or cruiserweight.
Potential Paths Beyond Canelo
Benavidez doesn’t need Canelo for him to become a star in his own right. These are potential paths for the 27-year-old Benavidez if he’s got the bravery required to face them:
- David Morrell Jr.
- Christian Mbilli
- Zhilei Zhang
- Joseph Parker
- Artur Beterbiev
- Jai Opetaia
- Dmitry Bivol
As big as Benavidez is size-wise, a move up to heavyweight is certainly a possibility for him. He’s bigger than Oleksandr Oleksandr Usyk and can certainly transition to heavyweight if he’s got the courage.
There’s a lot of money to be made for Benavidez if he moves up to heavyweight, but it would require risks on his part.
If Benavidez stays at 168 and continues to kill himself making weight, he could be wasting his time if he’s under the delusion that Canelo will fight him.
Wasted Time or Fear Factor?
Staying at 168 might be useless for Benavidez unless he lacks the self-confidence to move up to 175 or 200 to face opposition his own size. If fear is what keeps Benavidez at 168, fighting smaller opposition rather than guys his own size at light heavyweight, cruiserweight, or heavyweight, he could be on a dead-end street, going nowhere.
Obviously, Benavidez would no longer have the massive size advantage that he’s been enjoying his entire career at 168, but he would find it easier to get fights.
It’s just that there’s no Canelo-like fighter in either of those weight classes, but Benavidez has been getting along well all this time without that payday, so nothing changes if he moves up in weight.
The only thing that changes is Benavidez wouldn’t enjoy a size advantage and would have to win based on talent rather than being bigger than his opponents.
“Canelo’s legacy will be stained, because he did not fight the best at this time which is Benavidez. I think the children, maybe the grandchildren one day, will ask him why he did not fight Benavidez,” said Sampson Lewkowicz, the promoter of Benavidez to ProBox_TV.