David Benavidez claims he was ready to agree to a flat fee of $5 million purse to challenge Canelo Alvarez for his undisputed super middleweight championship.
Benavidez sounds pretty bitter about Canelo not giving him the fight he’s been pressing for. He says he would have taken the minimum to fight Canelo.
Hearn Sheds Light on Dealbreaker
Eddie Hearn says he tried to make the fight, but Benavidez’s promoter Sampson Lewkowicz wanted the USA TV rights to have the fight with Canelo shown on Amazon Prime PPV, which means that it’s not Alvarez’s fight couldn’t happen.
Benavidez says he ‘doesn’t need Canelo’ and will now be moving up to 175 to fight Oleksandr Gvozyk to try and get the chance to fight for the undisputed.
A Dubious Plan
Benavidez says he’s going to return to 168 after he’s done with 175, and the only reason he would do that would be to try and fight Canelo.
There’s no one else that Benavidez would be eager to fight at 168, as he’s not interested in facing David Morrell, who might be the best in the division right now. The only reason Benavidez would return to 168 is to get the Canelo fight, but that’s unlikely to happen.
Why would Canelo fight him a year or two from now? It doesn’t make sense, and you have to wonder if Benavidez and his dad, Jose Sr., have their feet firmly planted on the ground. They’re not going to return to 168, and if they do, it would be an insane thing to do, making you wonder if they’re learning from the past. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” – Albert Einstein.
If Benavidez gets beaten by Artur Beterbiev at 175, he’ll be in a weakened position to continue pressuring Canelo for a fight. If Benavidez defeats defeats Beterbiev or Bivol, why would he return to 168? It would be silly. He would be better off staying at 175 and waiting for the Saudis to throw money at him for a rematch.
The Pursuit of Money
“Him parting ways with PBC, even though this fight was on the table, it just speaks volumes. I’m not going to be waiting on Canelo,” said David Benavidez to Mike Coppinger on X. “The reason why this fight is not happening is because Canelo doesn’t want it to happen, plain and simple.”
“I don’t need Canelo. The only reason people fight Canelo is for a payday. I don’t care about money. I care about winning titles and giving the fans the best fights possible. The thing I cared about was the opportunity because I know once I beat him, that’s when the money comes.”
The sole reason Benavidez wants to fight Canelo is money. Benavidez would make more money for his future fights by beating Canelo, and that’s why he would take the fight.
If Benavidez REALLY wanted to provide fans with the best fight and wasn’t just giving lip service by saying that’s what his goal is, he would have accepted the challenge from David Morrell. Moreover, Benavidez would have moved up to 175 and 200 a long time ago and fought Beterbiev, Bivol and Jai Opetaia.
Benavidez would have given fans far more entertaining fights facing those three than he would have had in the last four years of his career fighting these beatable easy marks:
Demetrius Andrade
Caleb Plant
David Lemieux
Kyrone Davis
Ronald Ellis
Roamer Alexis Angulo
Anthony Dirrell
J’Leon Love