After overcoming strain with son, Jose Benavidez Snr angles for strong start to 2025

A few months ago, Jose Benavidez Snr wasn’t sure how much longer he’d remain as lead trainer of his WBC light-heavyweight interim champion son David Benavidez.

Other talented fighters, including unbeaten top-ranked super-middleweight contender Diego Pacheco and Mexican lightweight Omar Salcido, exist in Benavidez Snr’s stable, and the trappings of his son’s rapidly escalating career aroused the idea that it might be best for them to separate.

“When you have a big team and you start bringing in people … you know, everyone wants to feel like they’re ‘the one,’ and you have a lot of people talking behind your ear on this and that, and sometimes, you know, we can all get lost, and I think that’s what happened,” Benavidez Snr told BoxingScene Monday.

Thanks to some old fashioned family bonding, including news that David Benavidez will welcome another child in 2025, the brief divide was repaired.

And with Los Angeles’ Pacheco, 22-0 (18 KOs), due to arrive in Las Vegas Sunday to conclude his training camp for his January 25 DAZN-streamed main-event bout at The Cosmopolitan versus Steven Nelson, 20-0 (16 KOs), trainer Benavidez is positioned to make a bold early case as trainer of the year.

One week later, on February 1, David Benavidez, 29-0 (24 KOs), meets Cuba’s unbeaten David Morrell, 11-0 (9 KOs), at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with the winner emerging as the mandatory opponent to the February 22 winner of the rematch between undisputed light-heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and former beltholder Dmitry Bivol.

The elder Benavidez, who was residing near his Seattle gym when tensions raised, took to personally connecting with his Miami-based son to clear the air.

“Now, I’m closer with [David] than I’ve ever been … you know, sometimes we need that [moment of truth], and I think David realizes all my hard work that I’ve put in since he was two years old … we’re stronger than ever,” Benavidez Sr. said. “And he doesn’t just tell me, he shows me. As a man.

“So this has become the biggest time for me because we’ve gone through so much together and now everything has settled and we’re working in a very lovable and understanding way.”

Benavidez Snr said the communication between himself and David has improved as David has taken to meditation and religious teaching to find inner harmony.

“I’ve never seen him so happy and I’ve never seen him so motivated,” Benavidez Snr said. “He’s super focused … I think he found himself. We’re tighter than ever and we’re communicating better than ever.”

In the meantime, Benavidez Snr has placed his assistant trainers to oversee Pacheco’s camp in Seattle while on Monday he presided over an impressive morning sparring session in Las Vegas between Salcido and someone who, in the amateurs, twice beat Salcido’s January 25 opponent, 2021 Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz.

Pacheco, 23, confronts a rugged stablemate of four-division champion Terence Crawford in Nelson, who’s trained by 2023 trainer of the year Brian McIntyre.

“Undefeated, strong fighter coming from a great camp,” Benavidez Snr said of Nelson. “He’s been through a lot of struggles and trying to get to the next step, but I think Diego is doing very well [ranked No. 1 at 168 pounds by the WBO] and after we beat Nelson, that will put Diego more up on the map, and we’ll be ready to fight for a world title.

“He’s just gotta look impressive. You can’t just fight. You’ve got to look spectacular in order to move up, like the last fight when he stopped the guy [Maciej Sulecki] with the shot to the body. That’s what we need: to look impressive.”

Benavidez Snr said he can foresee victory taking Pacheco to fights against top super-middleweights including former champion Caleb Plant, recent title challenger Edgar Berlanga or WBC/WBA No. 1-ranked Christian Mbilli.

“We’re ready for anybody who’s ready to fight,” he said.

Since Alvarez is currently resting with time to mull who he’ll fight next, Pacheco has the main-event stage to make his case.

But, as in the case of his son, Benavidez Snr said he doubts Alvarez will entertain fighting Pacheco.

“Canelo just wants to fight guys who are very hit-able, who come forward,” Benavidez Snr said. “Diego Pacheco uses his distance, is a counterpuncher, can attack when he counters and moves. I don’t think Canelo wants to fight somebody like that.”

So the focus now is these upcoming bouts.

Benavidez Snr said he maintained from the outset with his boxer sons, including Crawford’s former title opponent Jose Benavidez Jnr, that they were always free to retain another cornerman if they wanted.

He’s enthused that it remains him.

“I feel like I’m invincible. He hugs me, tells me thanks, and it just gives me so much motivation,” Benavidez Snr said of David. “I’m on top of the world. It’s like a dream. Nobody’s stopping us. We’re more powerful than ever.

“All the belts, all the money, the mention of trainer of the year … all of that doesn’t mean anything compared to the feeling of doing what I love and getting to be close to my kids. I feel like a millionaire.”