Claressa Shields wants to see Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez take on David Benavidez.
The clash is one of the most intriguing fights that can be made in world boxing right now.
There has been tension building between these two super-middleweights for some time now. ‘Canelo’ has so far avoided getting into serious negotiations and has previously named an eye-wateringly high price of $200m to take the fight.
In the meantime, Benavidez has moved up to light-heavyweight and beat Oleksandr Gvozdyk on his debut but hasn’t ruled out coming back down and challenge ‘Canelo’ for his unified titles.
This past weekend, ‘Canelo’ defended those belts with a wide points win over Edgar Berlanga.
Speaking to FightHub TV, multi-weight world champion Shields explained she thinks Canelo should fight Benavidez to ‘shut him up.’
“If you can fight against Berlanga you can fight against Benavidez, who is better than Berlanga, that’s what we’re saying.
He’s more dangerous than Berlanga, he has more experience, he has fought against more world champions. When it comes to size too, it’s somebody who wants to fight you, who thinks he can beat you, someone who disrespected you.
I think Canelo is the man, I like the way he fights, he’s been around for a long time, got great skills, I like the guy.
Us, the fans, just want you to put Benavidez in his place. Benavidez taking all this trash to the king, you letting him. Nah, beat him up, shut him up. That’s what I want to see.”
Shields can’t pick a winner between the two, pointing out that both have their strong points.
“I think it’s a hell of a fight and I think they both have their strong points on how they can beat each other. I think Benavidez will force Canelo to fight differently because Benavidez will be all over him.”
Despite the pressure building on Canelo to agree to the fight, he has named Dmitry Bivol as the man he is most keen to fight next.
Bivol handed the Mexican one of his only two career losses back when the pair fought for Bivol’s light-heavyweight title back in 2022.
