Canelo Alvarez has made it clear who he wants to fight next and it could spell bad news for David Benavidez.
Canelo retained his WBC, WBO and WBA super-middleweight titles with a unanimous decision win over Edgar Berlanga in September, with attention quickly turning to who the Mexican superstar will face next.
A potential showdown with Benavidez has been speculated for the past couple of years, but it seems any current hope of that contest ended when Benavidez moved to 175lbs for his last bout, defeating Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the WBC interim light-heavyweight title.
Instead, Benavidez announced his desire to face the winner of the undisputed battle between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol, with his newly won interim belt putting him in line to be the mandatory challenger for whoever comes out on top.
Canelo could scupper those plans though, after he told ESPN’s Mike Coppinger about his desire to face Bivol next, in a rematch of their 2022 encounter which was won by the Russian.
“When I spoke to Canelo yesterday he said he wants Dmitry Bivol next [in May] provided Bivol does beat Artur Beterbiev on October 12th for the undisputed light-heavyweight championship. And what’s nice about that fight, if it does happen, is it’s a real departure from Canelo’s last three or four fights – that’s a fight where Canelo’s going to be a decided underdog … That’s a real legacy-defining fight.”
Benavidez may now be hoping for a Beterbiev victory in order to secure his shot at light-heavyweight gold as Bivol could well opt for the bigger money in the Canelo fight if he does win and has the choice.
