David Benavidez isn’t giving up on his chase of a fight against the undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.
Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs) points out that he’s been mandatory for Canelo for three years, and he’s been waiting for him to give him his earn shot. He says he’s not going to bow down to the Mexican star by being respectful because he feels he shouldn’t have to get his mandatory title shot.
Benavidez, 27, revealed that he’ll be fighting on June 22nd on the undercard of Gervonta Davis vs. Frank Martin. He’ll be taking on Oleksandr Gvozdyk in a WBC 175-lb title eliminator to become the mandatory for champion Artur Beterbiev’s title with that orgzanition.
The goal is for Benavidez to fight the winner of the June 1st fight between IBF/WBC/WBO champion Beterbiev and WBA champ Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed championship at 175.
“Now I’m at the doorstep of something big”
“Now I’m at the doorstep of something big. I’m fighting for another title in another weight class. So by the time this fight is done, I’m going to have four of those, and we’re still trying to look for that Canelo fight,” said David Benavidez to the FreshandFit YouTube channel.
The thing that Benavidez is talking about is him fighting the winner of Beterbiev vs. Bivol. If the Saudis stage the fight in their country, which they probably will, Benavidez will make a lot of money, possibly more than what he’s made thus far for any of his fights during his 11-year professional career.
Even if Canelo never faces Benavidez, he’ll still do quite well financially by fighting the Beterbiev-Bivol winner in Saudi Arabia.
“Canelo is with this bull s***, ‘He needs to be respectful.’ I’m not going to bow my knee to nobody because I’ve earned my shot for the belts,” said Benavidez. “The only reason this fight isn’t happening is because he wants 150 to 200 million, which is absurd. Not even the promotional company makes money like that.”
It probably won’t matter if Benavidez is suddenly respectful towards Canelo. He’s already said so much that Canelo won’t trust him if he starts being polite the way Jaime Munguia has been towards him.
It took Munguia 11 years to finally get a fight against Canelo, even with him being respectful. Canelo ain’t going to be around another 11 years for Benavidez to smother him with compliments in hopes of getting a fight.
“That’s Basically Him Telling Me He’s Scared”
“That’s basically him telling me he’s scared. I try not to say too much because if I say he’s scared, people say I’m a hater. ‘What have you proved?’ I have three belts. I’m the #1 contender. I don’t need to prove s***. I’ve beat the people that tell me to beat so I can fight for the title,” said Benavidez.
“I’ve done that over and over again. I’ve been the mandatory for three years. That has never happened. Canelo is the money man right now. I just want to give the best fights to the fans.”
It doesn’t matter if Benavidez is the mandatory to Canelo. What he’s failing to understand is the sanctioning bodies can’t force Canelo to fight him, and they’re not about to strip him brings them so much money. As Benavidez points out, the sanctioning bodies get 3 percent from Canelo. That adds up when you get the kind of money Canelo does.
“The people [in PBC] say, ‘Bro, we can’t force him [Canelo] to fight you. If he doesn’t want to fight you, there’s nothing we can do.’ I’m not going anywhere. When I keep winning and beating these guys impressively, the fight [against Canelo] will be even bigger when it happens,” said Benavidez.