Representatives for unbeaten, highly ranked David Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) will offer Canelo Alvarez “close to $50 million” for a fight. If Canelo accepts the offer from Benavidez’s reps, the two will likely meet in September on the Mexican holiday weekend.
Since beating John Ryder on May 6th, Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) has been adamant about wanting the rematch with Dmitry Bivol in September at 175. That fight is essential for Canelo because Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) soundly thrashed him a year ago on May 7th, 2022.
It’s a pride thing for Canelo with him wanting to run it back against Bivol, and that’s something that he won’t likely walk away from, even if he’s being offered $50M to fight Benavidez. That kind of money is just a drop in the bucket compared to the dough that Canelo has made during his long eighteen-year professional career.
Promoter Eddie Hearn has already put together plans for Canelo to fight Edgar Berlanga next year, likely after his September rematch with Bivol.
Canelo seems to be losing patience with how Benavidez has doggedly pursued him for the past four years.
Although Canelo has told Benavidez to pick up some quality wins on his resume to earn his spot, his only solid win over a credible opponent came recently against Caleb Plant last March.
Benavidez didn’t look nearly as good against Plant as Canelo did in stopping him in the eleventh round in November 2021. That fight caused a lot of boxing fans to question whether Benavidez is good as they originally thought, as Plant exposed him and easily outboxed him in the first half of the contest. Benavidez would have lost that fight if Plant didn’t fade late.
That was a good start for the 26-year-old Benavidez, but he likely will need more victories over substantial competition before Canelo agrees to fight him.
Benavidez should stay busy and fight these guys to help build an eventual Canelo fight:
Jermall Charlo
David Morrell Jr
Jaime Munguia
Artur Beterbiev
Dmitry Bivol
Janibek Alimkhanuly
A good option for Benavidez’s next fight would be David Morrell Jr, the WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion from Cuba. If Benavidez wins that fight, he’ll hold the WBA belt, which help validate him as a credible opponent for Canelo.
Benavidez has the size to compete at 175 with guys like Bivol and Beterbiev. Indeed, Benavidez had to trim down considerably in long training camp for his last fight against former IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant.
Benavidez looks slightly emaciated at 168, and he would be better off moving to 175 so that he doesn’t have to drop so much weight in camp.
