David Benavidez will be battling former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux for the interim WBC 168-lb title on May 21st on Showtime in Phoenix, Arizona.
Dan Rafael is reporting the news of the Benavidez vs. Lemieux fight taking place on May 21st. The winner will be in a position to eventually challenge WBC super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez at some point unless he elects to vacate.
On the undercard, Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis fights Custio Clayton in an IBF welterweight title eliminator. The winner will be the mandatory challenger to IBF 147-lb champion Errol Spence Jr.
Jose Benavidez Sr, the father of David, is already expressing doubts that Canelo will fight his son should he come out victorious against #2 WBC Lemieux (43-4, 36 KOs).
Jose says that if Lemieux wins, Canelo will immediately fight him, but if it’s Benavidez, he won’t want any part of that match-up.
It’s fair to say that Jose Sr. is a little bit jaded at this point, firmly believing that Canelo wants nothing to do with fighting the former two-time WBC super middleweight champion Benavidez (25-0, 22 KOs).
The way that Canelo appeared to get irritated this week when asked about fighting Benavidez seems to reinforce the idea that he’s not interested in that match-up.
Jose Sr. says he wants to set up a fight between Benavidez and Demetrius Andrade after David’s contest with Lemieux. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look promising for the Benavidez vs. Andrade fight to get made.
Benavidez’s promoter Sampson Lewkowicz mentioned in an interview last week that it would require a bigger money offer for him to agree to that fight than what David would get for Canelo Alvarez bout.
“This is what we’re faced with all the time with Demetrius Andrade,” said Eddie Hearn to Tru School Sports when told that Jose Benavidez Sr. said that the figure that David’s promoter Sampson Lewkowicz mentioned about wanting for a fight against Demetrius was “ridiculous.”
“That’s what we’re faced with all the time with Demetrius Andrade,” said Hearn on Benavidez’s promoter Sampson wanting a ton of money for him to make a fight with Demetrius.
“You’ve got a guy in Sampson Lewkowicz that’s telling you he wants MORE money to fight Demetrius Andrade than he does Canelo Alvarez. You’ve got no chance, do you? But we’ll see.
“Jose Benavidez talks a good game. I had a nice chat with him, but Jose Benavidez is not in control of David Benavidez’s career, unfortunately. If he was, he’d be fighting much better fights.
“No problem,” Hearn said on him having no objections in allowing Demetrius Andrade to fight Benavidez on Showtime rather than DAZN. “Listen, with or without me, I just want Demetrius Andrade to get his opportunity to be in a big fight.
“It doesn’t matter if he’s with Matchroom or without Matchroom. We’ve done our job, we’ve kept him active, we’ve paid him great money, but we haven’t been able to deliver him a big fight.
“We’ve tried everything and no one will fight him. I’m glad Sampson came out and said that because now I’ll just go, ‘Guys, now you can see what we’re up against.‘
“Jose Benavidez saying to me, ‘No, no, we don’t want. Sampson’s talking rubbish.’ He’s your promoter. So, anyway,” said Hearn on making it clear that a fight between Andrade and Benavidez looks implausible.
Beating Andrade would help ratchet up pressure on Canelo to force him to fight Benavidez. Right now, Benavidez’s resume is too barren of noteworthy names for him to create the pressure needed to get Canelo to fight him.
