The calendar allows it, but will the king?
Unbeaten light heavyweights and recent super middleweights David Benavidez and David Morrell are staging a pay-per-view showdown on Feb. 1 in Las Vegas that would be the perfect hype-building event for the winner to face Canelo Alvarez on Cinco de Mayo.
As Mexico’s four-division champion Alvarez 62-2-2 (39 KOs) assesses a landscape of possible foes that includes fellow four-division and current junior-middleweight champion Terence Crawford along with top-ranked 168-pound contenders Diego Pacheco and Christian Mbilli, the Benavidez-Morrell winner is an attractive option to fans.
It’s worth noting that while Benavidez, 29-0 (24 KOs), is slotted as the WBC interim 175-pound champion to undisputed champion Artur Beterbiev, the Russian will likely first rematch countryman Dmitry Bivol later this year.
In interviews with PPV.com Tuesday before the news conference announcing their card at T-Mobile Arena, both Benavidez, 27, and the 26-year-old Morrell, 11-0 (9 KOs), both expressed skepticism that they can get to Alvarez next, with Benavidez sounding the most hopeful refrain.
“I hope it happens. I don’t think it will happen. I just don’t know. It’s up to Canelo. If he wants to make the fight happen, we can make the fight happen,” Benavidez said. “It’d probably be the biggest fight in the sport. So I’m ready – I’m ready for whenever the time comes.”
Benavidez languished as WBC mandatory contender to Alvarez as he elected to instead bypass the Phoenix fighter to meet former 154-pound champion Jaime Munguia and prohibitive underdog and WBA mandatory contender Edgar Berlanga this year.
“He doesn’t want to fight me, just like he doesn’t want to fight others who deserve the opportunities,” said Cuba’s Morrell, who joined Benavidez in the dual defection to 175 pounds. “I don’t have any expectation of [landing a Canelo fight] because other guys have been waiting for longer and they still haven’t gotten their opportunity.”
Both Benavidez and Morrell said they’d be capable of coming back down to 168 pounds, which might be appealing to Alvarez, who is free to demand a rehydration clause to limit the fighters’ fight-day weight.
He’d also be forcing them to make the relatively tight turnaround from fighting Feb. 1 and on the first Saturday of May.
Benavidez made it clear he’s fighting the quality contender Morrell because he believes elite fighters should go head-on after their stiffest competition.
“What made me select David Morrell is because I have a lot to prove – not only to the world, but to myself. I want to be the most dangerous fighter in the world today,” Benavidez said.
“To do that, you’ve got to take out the most dangerous threats and David Morrell is there – has the WBA interim belt. We get to beat [him], prove myself and add another belt to my collection.
“I want to be one of those dangerous fighters – like [Gennadiy] Golovkin, Julio Cesar Chavez. I’m not afraid of any fighter. This is the way I can prove it.”
Benavidez has said for years that he doesn’t want to stake his career on the possibility of Alvarez choosing to fight him, but he may be in another holding pattern at 175 as Beterbiev and Bivol may not stage their rematch in the first half of 2025.
Nevertheless, Benavidez said he started training early for this date thinking that a showdown with the undisputed light-heavyweight champion would arrive by then.
He said he’s convinced he will get a 175-pound title shot sometime in 2025.
”I think it’s a possibility, 100 percent,” Benavidez said. “This is the same reason I took this fight. I was already preparing for a hard fight. There’s no better experience to get than going after these hard fighters – to get me ready for these great fighters.”
Whenever and whomever that will be is yet to be determined.
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