Trainer Robert Garcia gives his thoughts on Canelo Alvarez’s reasons for choosing not to fight David Benavidez and instead facing Jaime Munguia on May 4th.
The guaranteed purse that the superstar Canelo (60-2-2, 39 KOs) would receive to fight Benavidez would only be $20 million more than what he’d getting to defend his undisputed super middleweight championship against Munguia (43-0, 34 KOs).
For Canelo, who has made hundreds of millions during his career, an extra $20 million for a fight against Benavidez isn’t worth it. That’s a small amount of money compared to the massive net worth.
Robert also points out that Benavidez has done a lot of bad-mouthing of Canelo, and he doesn’t want to reward him by giving him a fight after all the things he’s said about him.
That kind of makes sense because it would empower Benavidez, and likely lead to him continuing to do the same thing if he were to lose to push for a second and third fight. It not ever stop because Benavidez isn’t going to make similar money fighting anybody else, so he’ll continue to push Canelo to keep fighting him.
$20 Million Difference Not Enough?
“I don’t want to say ducking because Canelo is not afraid of him. Canelo is more about pride and ‘F*** everybody. I’m not going to give you guys the fight you want,'” said trainer Robert Garcia to the 210BoxingTv YouTube channel, talking about Canelo Alvarez ignoring the fans by choosing not to fight David Benavidez.
“For Canelo, a $20 million difference isn’t going to change his life. He’s already worth hundreds and hundreds of millions,” said Robert about Canelo receiving only $20M extra from what he’s getting for the Munguia fight to face Benavidez. It’s not enough of a difference in pay for Canelo to view it as worthwhile.”
If Canelo were to fight Benavidez for an extra $80 to $100 million over what he’s getting for the Munguia clash, it would make sense for him to take that match. That’s not how it is, though, so it’s not worth it for Canelo to fight him because the reward isn’t there.
“For Canelo, it’s like a young kid. A promoter is offering him a $10,000 fight to a $20,000 fight for a very difficult fight. I’d rather take the $10,000 and not risking my fighter against a tougher guy,” said Robert.
“For Canelo, $20 million is probably the same thing. So, he’s just doing it to go against the world and go against Benavidez for everything he’s been saying.”
PBC won’t be able to come up with the dough for Canelo to entice him to fight Benavidez, which means the only way the match will happen is if the Saudis are interested in seeing it. Will they? Probably not, because His Excellency seems more interested in heavyweights.
He’s paying the heavyweights huge money but hasn’t shown the same interest in bringing the fighters from the 168-lb weight class to Saudi Arabia.
Munguia Fight: A Sign of Things to Come?
“But now that Canelo is picking Munguia after where he said he would never want to fight a Mexican. This is probably a good start,” said Garcia.
“He’s fighting a Mexican, meaning his next fight could be against Benavidez. If he said, ‘I don’t want to fight Mexicans because I don’t want to fight any other Mexican,’ I respect that. That’s his opinion. That’s what he thinks and what’s to keep it,” said Garcia.
Robert is making a big leap by thinking that Canelo’s fight against Munguia means he will potentially face Benavidez next. That’s not going to be the case unless PBC comes up with the money to make it worthwhile for Canelo, and it doesn’t appear that they have the financial means to do that without Amazon Prime chipping in.
“But now he broke that. Now, he’s fighting a Mexican, meaning there’s no other excuse. He needs to fight Benavidez, too. So, now I think we will see it. Now that he chose to fight Munguia, I think we probably will see it,” said Garcia.
Gvozdyk as a Test Run
“If you look at the way things are looking. Canelo’s team, Eddy Reynoso, manages and promotes Oleksandr Gvozdyk,” said Robert. “He’s Canelo’s main sparring partner for two or three years in a row, and Oleksandr Gvozdyk is the one fighting David Benavidez.”
Robert has an interesting theory about the motives behind Team Canelo’s use of Gvozdyk as an opponent for Benavidez. They would be getting important intelligence on Benavidez’s style and his overall talent. If Benavidez struggles against Gvozdyk, a fighter that Canelo has used as his sparring partner, that would be a sign that he’s beatable.
Benavidez wants to fight the winner of the Benavidez vs. Dmitry Bivol fight for the undisputed championship because there’s a chance it would be staged in Saudi Arabia, and he would make a lot of money.
Gvozdyk isn’t being used as a test case by Team Canelo. That’s not what this is. He’s ranked #2 with the WBC, so he’s the guy Benavidez can fight to become the mandatory for champion Artur Beterbiev.
The World Boxing Council is paving the way for Benavidez to fight Gvozdyk to become Beterbiev’s mandatory. This isn’t a strategic move by Canelo’s team.
It’s a fight that Gvozdyk will get a nice payday, and it’s a winnable one because Benavidez is a guy that has excelled due to his size advantage and weak opposition at 168. Now that he’s fighting someone his size, more or less for the first time, who has actual talent and power, he could lose.
“So, that also tells me they’re [Team Canelo] sending in their own fighter to fight Benavidez to test and to see, and I’m pretty sure they’re going to be there. They may even be working the corner,” said Garcia.
“They’re going to see how strong and big, how dangerous, and how powerful David Benavidez is using Oleksandr Gvozdyk to make the decision if they take the fight or they don’t take the fight.
“We hear Benavidez is fighting Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Canelo’s sparring partner for the last three, and Eddy Reynoso manages the kid and promotes the kid. It kind of puts things together where seeing that, it kind of makes me feel we might see that fight,” said Robert about the Canelo vs. Benavidez clash.
