David Benavidez says he’s “moved on” and is no longer chasing after superstar Canelo Alvarez to try and get a fight against him. He’d been trying to get a fight against Canelo for many years with no luck, and he’s temporarily given up.
Benavidez, 27, still thinks a fight with Canelo can happen within the next five years, so he’s given up entirely on that match. Surprisingly, Benavidez thinks that he’ll stay unbeaten that long, which means he would need to beat WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion David Morrell and the winner of the rematch between undisputed 175-lb champ Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
Morrell Could Bring Benavidez To Heel
The chances are high that Benavidez will lose in his next fight or two because he’ll be facing far better competition than he did at 168, and he’s not the same fighter he was at 175. There’s an excellent chance the Cuban Morrell will defeat Benavidez and end once and for all his forlorn hope for a Canelo fight.
Benavidez’s best wins
– Demetrius Andrade: 35
– Caleb Plant: Post-Canelo knockout loss
– Oleksandr Gvozdyk: 37
– Anthony Dirrell
– Ronald Gavril
In debut at light heavyweight, he struggled to beat 37-year-old Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15th. The older fighter outpunched Benavidez and was fighting on fumes after six rounds. That fight showed that Benavidez isn’t going to dominate against guys his own size at 175, and life could become very difficult for him soon, perhaps on February 1st when he faces Morrell.
Benavidez Not Giving Up On Canelo
It seems a hopeless dream for Benavidez to be still thinking he can get a fight against Canelo because, by this point, you’d think he’d finally got it through his thick head that the Mexican superstar is NEVER going to fight him. If Canelo hadn’t fought Benavidez before, why would he have wanted to face him in five years at 39?
WBC interim champion Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) has other priorities now, facing Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) on February 1st at the T-Mobile Arna in Las Vegas. If Benavidez wins that, he’ll face whoever emerges as the winner of the Beterbiev-Bivol 2 winner.
“Right now, I’ve moved on,” said David Benavidez to ESNEWS about him no longer focusing on trying to get a fight against Canelo Alvarez. “Eventually, it will happen because I’m not going to lose to anybody, and I don’t think he’s going to lose to anybody either. Maybe it doesn’t happen now but it could happen in five years because I don’t see Canelo retiring any time soon.”
Benavidez needs to focus on Morrell and see Canelo as a lost cause. He’s probably not going to ever fight him, and he’s just torching himself by continuing to hold out desperate hope that he will.
If money is the thing, Benavidez needs to beat Morrell, the Beterbiev-Bivol winner, and then move up to cruiserweight to take on IBF Jai Opetaia. If Benavidez gets through all those fights without losing, he’ll be rich.
