Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez versus David Benavidez is a fight that has been talked about for some time now.
Canelo made four defences of his undisputed super-middleweight status before being stripped of the IBF World Title for not facing his mandatory challenger. Benavidez, much to fan distaste, did not feature in those fights despite being rightly regarded as the most-deserving contender.
Should the fight be made, multi-weight boxing great Roy Jones Jr told Boxing Scene Benavidez has a chance of victory if he sticks to his famously high work rate and his chin can stand up to Canelo’s shots.
“David Benavidez is a hungry guy and it will take some effort to beat him. Canelo has never been down, so Benavidez definitely has to outwork him. He has to evade Canelo’s bombs.
It’s a great fight for both fighters, the classic boxer vs the classic puncher. If Benavidez can take the punch, he probably can pull off the decision. But if he can’t take the punch, Canelo will stop him late.”
As a result of not being able to land the fight, Benavidez moved up to light heavyweight in his latest outing to defeat Oleksandr Gvozdyk and win the interim WBC championship belt. He is now mandatory for the winner of the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol undisputed fight in October.
Despite having given up his mandatory slot at super-middleweight in favour of this new higher division, he would still likely make the move back down if the Canelo fight was finally put on the table – although the man who has the money to make it, Turki Alalshikh, has accused the Mexican champion of being afraid.
Last time out, Alvarez beat fellow Mexican Jamie Munguia via unanimous decision and in September he takes on Edgar Berlanga.
