In other words, Benavidez will continue to be frozen out until he’s forced to give up and move to 175.
Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs), who is both the mandatory and WBC interim super middleweight champion for Canelo’s belt with that organization, wants the World Boxing Council to do their job already and order the fight.
The WBC is taking its time getting around to ordering Canelo to defend against Benavidez, and some fans believe they’re afraid that the Mexican star will vacate if they order him to defend against Benavidez.
You got to wonder if the WBC would have taken this long to order the fight if Canelo were the challenger and there was a weak champion holding the belt at 168 with their organization.
Somehow, it’s hard to believe the WBC would wait over a year and counting to order the champion to defend against Canelo.
“I’m the #1 contender for the [WBC 168-lb] belt, and I’ve proven myself over and over again. If I have to keep proving myself until I get that fight [with Canelo Alvarez], then that’s what I’m going to do. I’m not going to lose to no one,” said David Benavidez to Fighthype about him wanting a title shot against WBC super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.
“I don’t feel like he took a step back. I just feel the level of opposition was better, tougher, stronger,” said Benavidez when asked if Canelo took a step back in 2022 in his less-than-spectacular performances against Dmitry Bivol and Gennadiy Golovkin.
Canelo looked awful against Bivol and Golovkin. All the bad habits that Canelo picked up fighting the weak super middleweight champions in 2020 & 2021 hurt his performances against Bivol and Golovkin. When Canelo tried to walk those guys down, throwing single shots, and he opened himself up for a lot of hard punches.
“You look at when he went up to 168. He had a great run at 168 and beat all the champions. Still, all the champions at 168 were weak,” Benavidez said about Canelo defeating paper champions at super middleweight to become the undisputed champ.
“He beats Rocky Fielding, then he beats Callum Smith, then he fights Billy Joe Saunders with 12 knockouts, then he fights Caleb Plant, and he has another 12 knockouts. Yeah, he looked really good, but the last two guys he fought at super middleweight [Plant and Saunders] they’re not big punchers.
“They were landing a lot of shots, but they’re not big punchers. Caleb was landing some shots, and Billy Joe was landing some shots. They were close fights, but they just don’t have that punching power like when he went up to 175, and he fought Bivol.
“He couldn’t really fk with Bivol’s power. It’s not that he took a step back. It’s just that he fought stronger and bigger opposition, and that’s exactly what would happen if he fought me. I’m stronger and bigger.
“Somebody that fights Canelo, they have to have that power where Canelo respects them. Otherwise, Canelo is just going to keep going and walking through your shots all day and looking for the body shot.
“I know if I hit him with any good shot, he’s not going to walk through them like that. I’m not going to say I can knock him out, but I can definitely beat him, and I could hurt him a couple of times. I think I can,” said Benavidez when asked if he can hurt Canelo more than Dmitry Bivol did last May.
“If you saw the sparring I had with Bivol, you’d have been extremely surprised. There are a lot of people that saw it at the Wildcard. I don’t want to say too much. A lot of people seen it.
“Yeah, I feel like I would do better than Bivol, but I just need the opportunity.
“If I have to win ten more fights to get to Canelo, then that’s what I’m going to do. It’s my right. I’ve won the right to fight for the belts. If they don’t want to give it to me, I’m going to go take it from them.
“It’s kind of the WBC’s job to tell them like, ‘This dude [Benavidez], we promised him a belt. He’s fought title eliminators. He has an interim belt.’ If rankings and st doesn’t matter, then why do they have the rankings in place?
“I mean, I understand it’s Canelo, and he does what he wants, but you’ve got to respect the rankings system. Who else is he going to fight for the belts? He has all the belts at 168. Is he just not going to fight anybody at super middleweight anymore?
“The only person they want to see him fight at super middleweight is me. I don’t got to even do anymore talking. I’ve proved it and people want to see it, so why not give the people want to see it. If you’re the baddest in the world and you’re not scared of nobody, then give the people what they want to see.
“I’ve been telling everybody I want to get these fights, but there’s only so much you can do when dudes don’t want to fight you,” said Benavidez.
Boxing News 24 » David Benavidez on Canelo Alvarez: “I can hurt him”
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