David Benavidez still finds it difficult to understand why Canelo Alvarez avoided a fight with him despite an “insane” offer being made to the Mexican.
Alvarez has dominated the super middleweight division in the last six years, once claiming all four belts in the process having beaten the likes of Gennady Golovkin, Caleb Plant, Billy Joe Saunders, and Callum Smith.
Benavidez’s name is missing from the list, however. The Arizona native called out Alvarez for years but to no avail.
“To be honest with you, I really don’t know,” Benavidez told BoxingScene when asked why he thinks Benavidez is yet to fight him. “I’m thinking, like why wouldn’t he take this fight? Why would this fight not happen? But every time I come back to this point, I feel like he won’t fight me because he knows he can’t beat me. I honestly feel like he knows he can’t beat me.
“Obviously, I’m in there. I’m always gonna be 100 per cent confident in whatever I do. But the money that they’ve been offering him to make this fight happen is just an insane amount for him not to take it. It’s because he knows he’s not confident in himself. So, I’m doing everything in my job to keep going and keep winning.”
With Alvarez showing no sign of facing Benavidez, the latter moved to campaign at light heavyweight out of frustration, decisioning Oleksandr Gvozdyk over 12 rounds in June – winning the WBC interim 175-pound title. On February 1, Benavidez is scheduled to slug it out with David Morrell in a make or break fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“I did everything to prove that I’m willing to fight this fighter [Alvarez], but I mean, if it doesn’t happen, it’s because of him. Maybe he needs $200 million to face me, I don’t know.
“But other than that, I don’t think that’s his only point. That’s the only thing he’ll be willing to fight me for.”
Benavidez hasn’t quite given up hope yet.
“I’m 100 per cent confident in myself,” he said. “Whenever that fight happens, I’ll be ready to go in there and win that fight.”
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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