Canelo Alvarez vs. David Benavidez seems like a fight that boxing fans may have missed out on.
Both fighters were campaigning at 168lbs when they were linked with one another, with Benavidez a former two-time world champion at super-middleweight.
Canelo went on to become undisputed in the division, and still remains unified champion after losing the IBF belt due to choosing not to face his mandatory challenger.
Despite the best efforts of Benavidez, he couldn’t convince Alvarez to step into the ring to face him, with Canelo demanding a mammoth purse of over 150 million dollars if he was to consider the fight.
His failure to secure the clash means Benavidez has now moved up to light-heavyweight, to continue his career at 175lbs. He made his debut in the division in June, defeating Oleksandr Gvozdyk to win the WBC interim light-heavyweight title.
He now takes on WBA Regular champion David Morrell in February, where a victory could earn Benavidez a fight against the winner of the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
While Benavidez is now seemingly becoming a force at 175lbs, Canelo doesn’t seem impressed, needing just four words to sum up to Fight Hub TV what he thinks of him compared to how he looked at 168lbs.
“He’s not the same.”
Canelo then explained that he can’t see Benavidez returning to super-middleweight, even though he doesn’t expect him to be successful at light-heavyweight.
“Look, it’s his weight class. 175 is his weight class, and he do nothing at 175, really.”
Canelo continues to be linked to a potential bout with fellow pound-for-pound star Terence Crawford, and Benavidez has given his prediction for how that could go.
