Sampson Lewkowicz, the promoter for David Benavidez, is reporting that Al Haymon of PBC has offered undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez a guaranteed purse of $55 million to fight him next.
Benavidez’s Forced Move
The superstar Canelo’s decision not to give Benavidez a chance to face him has forced him to make the tough decision to move up to 175 to battle for the interim WBC 175-lb title next.
Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs) will face Oleksandr Gvoxyk for the WBC interim and mandatory spot at light heavyweight next. If Canelo rejects the $55 million offer, Benavidez will face Gvozyk (20-1, 16 KOs) to try and become the mandatory winner of the June 1st fight between light heavyweight champions Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
High Stakes, High Reward – But Is it Enough?
The $55 million guaranteed purse that Canelo (60-2-2, 39 KOs) would be getting for a fight against Benavidez is obviously a lot of money, but not when you look at the gigantic paydays the aging British heavyweights Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are making to fight in Saudi Arabia in less risky fights.
Joshua and Fury are making money hand over fist fighting for His Excellency in Saudi Arabia, and neither has faced any risk. Canelo is more popular in the U.S. than either of those guys, and he could make a lot of money fighting in that country than the $55 million to face the cruiserweight-sized Benavidez.
Money vs. Risk
$55 million is good money, but not for the risk that Canelo is facing fighting a guy with the kind of cruiserweight size that Benavidez has.
Perhaps if the money were better, and if there were a rehydration clause that would limit Benavidez’s weight to within 10 lbs of the 168-lb, with the secondary weigh-in coming on the night of the fight rather than in the morning, that would make sense.
For Canelo to fight a guy that outweighs him as much as Benavidez would, it’s a pointless fight for the $55 million. Canelo can make more money fighting in Saudi Arabia. This amount is chickenfeed compared to what Canelo can get fighting in Saudi Arabia against opposition of his own size.
It’s unknown if Canelo will accept this amount, as it’s not much of an increase of pay to the $35 million guaranteed purse that PBC is offering for him to face Jaime Munguia on May 4th.
Is Benavidez worth only $20 million more than the Munguia fight, which is a total mismatch on paper and won’t interest large portions of the U.S. public?
You would think that Benavidez would be a fight that should be double the purse for Canelo than the Munguia fight, as it’s a far better one, and it would have more of a reach across the U.S. Benavidez is American.