“I think it will happen.” david benavidez feels he’ll eventually face canelo alvarez

By: Sean Crose

Everyone has wanted to see David Benavidez fight Canelo Alvarez. Everyone, that is, except for Canelo. At least for the time being. While it’s a tall order to accuse Canelo of ducking an impressive opponent, there’s little doubt that the future hall of famer has proven himself to be less than eager to face Benavidez anytime soon. Credit Benavidez, however, for being willing to move on. “To be honest with you, I did everything in my power possible to make that fight happen,” CBS quotes Benavidez as saying. “I beat the fighters that they told me I couldn’t beat. I was No. 1 contender for the past three years but I had my hands tied.” 

In truth, Benavidez wants it to be known that he’s not responsible for a Canelo fight not not coming to fruition. “The only reason this fight is not happening is because Canelo doesn’t want it to happen,” Benavidez said, “because he knows damn well that when he faces me, I’m taking all of his titles home with me.” As things stand, Canelo is the undisputed super middleweight champion of the world, while Benavidez is moving up in weight to face Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the interim WBC light heavyweight title this weekend in Las Vegas.

Still, Benavidez feels a Canelo fight will eventually go down. “I think it will happen,” he said, “but I don’t know when. I think this is too big of a fight to leave on the table like that. Everybody wants to see this fight and I want to be in this fight, too. I want to show the people that I’m the best in the world but I don’t know when that is going to happen.”

Not that Benavidez isn’t remaining focused on the present.  “I tried to unify the titles but I did not get that opportunity (at super middleweight) so I came up to 175. Now, this fight is going to put me in position to fight for all of the titles at 175 and I’m going to continue to be a dominant force in whatever weight class I choose to fight in.”

The truth is that Benavidez might well be right about a Canelo fight eventually coming to fruition. Canelo may be many things, but he’s not known for avoiding dangerous opposition. There’s a very good – if not all out likely – chance that the man will indeed sign to fight Benavidez in the future. Canelo is a man with the luxury of picking who, when, and where he fights, however.