Saul “Canelo” Alvarez may be said to be ducking David Benavidez, but the respected trainer Robert Garcia believes the super-middleweight king can do without him.
Alvarez, 34, successfully defended his WBC, WBA and WBO super-middleweight belts against Edgar Berlanga last Saturday, with a dominant unanimous decision win at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The Alvarez-Berlanga fight reportedly recorded significant numbers despite many criticizing the match-up. Mexico’s Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KOs) disappointed many observers by fighting Berlanga of Puerto Rico (22-1, 17 KOs) rather than Benavidez.
But Garcia believes Alvarez has continuously proved that he’s the face of boxing with incredible pay-per-view numbers irrespective of the opponent he fights.
“That just tells you, Canelo is a superstar,” he told FightHub TV. “He’s the face of boxing right now. People kinda tease him about his choice of opponents, but when you look at the buys, when you look at the gate, does it look like he’s kinda found the sweet spot? He doesn’t give a fuck.
“He doesn’t care. We would all love to see him fight Benavidez, but he doesn’t have to. He’s still doing great numbers with whoever he picks.”
The yet-to-be-staged bout between Alvarez and Benavidez has long been considered the most exciting the Mexican could agree to. With disappointment in his eyes, Benavidez moved up to 175lbs to fight Oleksandr Gvozdyk in June.
It is unclear if Alvarez would consider offering Benavidez an opportunity to fight him next – especially when the name of Terence Crawford keeps emerging as a potential opponent at 168lbs.
When asked who he thinks Alvarez should fight next, Garcia compared ‘Canelo’ to Floyd Mayweather, saying: “Mayweather was in that position too where no matter who he fights or who he does an exhibition with, he’s still gonna do good numbers.
“So, there’s very few that could do that, and Canelo’s one of them.”
Bernard Neequaye is a sports journalist with a specialty in boxing coverage. He wrote a boxing column titled “From The Ringside” in his native Ghana for years. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) at @BernardNeequaye, LinkedIn at Bernard Neequaye and through email at [email protected].
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