David Benavidez has finally conceded that a fight with Canelo Alvarez will never happen, admitting that reality years after his climb up the divisions settled the question.
Benavidez currently fights at cruiserweight, two full divisions above super middleweight, while openly discussing a future heavyweight jump against Oleksandr Usyk. He has not made 168 pounds since 2023. Any realistic window to face Canelo closed several weight classes ago.
“I think honestly I could say with confidence that that fight is never going to happen,” Benavidez told Brian Custer.
When Brian asked if he had permanently moved on, Benavidez praised Canelo, yet still claimed the Mexican star simply refused to face him.
“I don’t want to keep disrespecting somebody … not even disrespecting, but just calling somebody out that doesn’t want to fight,” he said.
That rationale ignores the massive physical gap separating them today. Critics can reasonably argue Canelo should have met Benavidez when both shared the 168-pound division. That complaint loses all weight with Benavidez now preparing for Michal Cieslak at 200 pounds.
His prospective roadmap includes Jai Opetaia, Artur Beterbiev, and eventual heavyweight tests. None of those plans lead anywhere near Canelo.
A logical alternative after Canelo fell to Terence Crawford would have been targeting Crawford directly. Crawford had talked of entering boxing’s Mount Rushmore. The public intrigue around him was at an all-time peak, and Turki Alalshikh held the purse strings to fund virtually any blockbuster Crawford wanted next.
If Benavidez truly wanted to settle the score on the belts Canelo kept out of reach, Crawford was the obvious lever to pull. Instead of shifting his crosshairs to the newly crowned undisputed champion, Benavidez let the moment disappear.
“He’s a great fighter. He’s a legend,” Benavidez said. “I would like to be a great Mexican legend like him one day.”
Calling yourself a future Mexican legend sounds nice in an interview, but looking at the actual resume tells a different story. Canelo earned that status by taking on the toughest challenges available from junior middleweight all the way to light heavyweight, facing elite operators like Floyd Mayweather Jr., Gennadiy Golovkin, Miguel Cotto, and Dmitry Bivol.
Benavidez is nowhere near that neighborhood. Instead of securing defining legacy bouts, he is lining up voluntary defenses against Michal Cieslak at 200 pounds. While Cieslak is a capable European contender, nobody outside of hard-core circles is paying to see that fight. It does nothing to elevate Benavidez to the pantheon of Mexican greats.
If Benavidez genuinely wanted to close the gap on Canelo, he needed to make real waves. Taking out Gilberto Ramirez was a solid win, but sitting on belts and scheduling low-demand opponents like Cieslak keeps him in neutral. Fighting fringe contenders at cruiserweight only proves that while he talks about chasing history, his matchmaking still trails far behind the standard Canelo set.