Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez has been defeated just twice in 66 fights, but his former promoter Oscar De La Hoya believes a third is guaranteed if he answers calls to face one rival.
Canelo looks to become two-time undisputed super-middleweight world champion next month when he faces William Scull. Should he win, he will move straight in to a September mega fight against pound-for-pound superstar Terence Crawford,
Whilst De La Hoya – who promoted a large part of Canelo’s career before a bitter split – believes the two-division jump is too much for Crawford, he does feel that David Benavidez absolutely has the beating of the Mexican icon.
Speaking to Fight Hub TV, De La Hoya said that the long awaited match-up would end in Benavidez’ favour ‘easily.’
“I think Benavidez will win and will win easy. He has the better arsenal, he has the better footwork, the jab is incredible and just the fact that he’s young. You really have to look at that, it’s like De La Hoya-Chavez will be Benavidez-Canelo, I actually think they’ll be the same age and Benavidez is the bigger guy.
“Look, I’m not knocking him. I’m the one who got him a $365million contract, why would I be knocking him, it’s just ridiculous. When I say something about Canelo it’s criticising something inside the ring because I can, I’m a fighter myself and I can critique and I have my opinion just as a fighter. I think Canelo has done great for the sport, obviously we built him but he has done amazing, is still doing amazing but is he slowing down? Naturally, he’s getting older.”
Benavidez moved up in weight due to the frustrations of not landing the fight with Canelo. The 28-year-old has recently been upgraded to full WBC Light Heavyweight World Champion, and may be an option if Canelo decides he wants to visit 175 pounds once more after two fights – beating Sergey Kovalev and losing to Dmitry Bivol – in the past.
