David Benavidez wants nothing more than to fight the best and, with his star power growing and the WBC Light-Heavyweight World title around his waist, he is becoming hard to ignore.
‘El Monstro’ is set to move up in weight again this summer, facing Gilberto Ramirez for the WBO and WBA belts at cruiserweight. He is then planning to drop back down to 175lbs to face Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev. Both Russians have expressed their interest in fighting with the 29-year-old pressure fighter.
Despite big main events on the horizon, Benavidez has still failed to secure the signature of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, and that is something that will always irk him.
Asked on The Danza Project if he felt not fighting Alvarez would leave a hole in his career, Benavidez said yes.
“100%. Always in boxing, or whatever sport, everybody has their arch nemesis. Canelo is my arch nemesis, basically. That’s exactly how it’d be. It’d be an unfortunate moment that never happened in boxing. If it doesn’t happen, there’s really nothing I can do about it.”
Benavidez – who has campaigned for the fight for a number of years now – then admitted that the delay has already seen it lose some appeal, given Alvarez’s loss to Terence Crawford last year.
“[Crawford] took a lot away from it. At the time Crawford beat him, Canelo was basically looking invincible. If I could’ve got in there, beat him, it would’ve been more of an impact. Now that Crawford came in and beat him, you don’t know what Canelo is gonna show up – if he’s gonna be extremely prepared or he doesn’t really seem like he’s hungry.”
Despite the consistent calls from both fans and Benavidez to make the fight happen, Canelo has demonstrated that he will make his own decisions in the sport. With a September return date locked in, and a shot at one of his previous super-middleweight world titles likely, it’s anybody’s guess whether or not he will venture back up to light-heavyweight again.
If he does so, he has made it clear that a rematch with Dmitry Bivol is higher on his list than facing Benavidez.
