David Benavidez’s stock has dropped dramatically since his debut at 175 against former WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15th.
Viewed as the boogeyman and dubbed ‘The Mexican Monster,’ Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) looked mortal at 175, showing he wasn’t the fighter the boxing public had previously thought he was.
The 27-year-old Benavidez’s performance showed what I had suspected: He’s only good at 168 because of his tremendous size advantage over his opposition.
A Grandfather Clause for Rehydration?
Benavidez is still young enough to lose weight to compete at 168 and use his size to beat smaller fighters. Benavidez would have problems if he had to deal with the 10-lb rehydration limit the IBF imposes on fights for their titles.
Benavidez holds the WBC interim 168-lb title, and that organization doesn’t have a 10-lb rehydration limit.
Ideally, all sanctioning bodies should have a 10-lb rehydration limit for safety reasons to prevent weight bullies from gaming the system to take advantage of their huge size to gain an advantage against smaller opposition.
If all four sanctioning bodies implement a 10-lb rehydration limit to protect fighters, it would put Benavidez in a tough position where he would likely be forced to move to 175 because he wouldn’t be able to make weight.
The only way around that would be if one of the sanctioning bodies had a grandfather clause to allow certain fighters to continue rehydrating well past thie 10-lb rehydration limit.
It would be like what Major League Baseball did when they outlawed the spitball in 1920. Under the grandfather clause, they continued to allow spitball pitchers to use that pitch until the end of their careers.
Without a similar grandfather clause for the 10-lb rehydration limit, Benavidez would be faced with moving to 175 and swimming with the predatory sharks without his customary weight advantage over his opposition.
Eddie Hearn’s Skepticism
Promoter Eddie Hearn chimed in with his thoughts, stating that Benavidez isn’t cut out for 175 and would lose to champions Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol. Hearn says Benavidez excels at 168.
“I like Benavidez; I think he’s a good fighter. How good? [Oleksandr] Gvozdyk is decent. He’s old. I don’t think Benavidez is a 175-fighter. I don’t think he beats [Artur] Beterbiev. I don’t think he beats Bivol,” said Eddie Hearn to Fight Hub TV, talking about his view on David Benavidez after his recent debut at light heavyweight on June 15.
“I think he’s very hard to beat at 168. I think that’s where a lot of his advantages come,” said Hearn about Benavidez.
The Future of the Mexican Monster
Benavidez’s performance in his debut at 175 against Gvozdyk cast doubt on his future in this weight class. If Benavidez continues to campaign at 175, he will likely have problems against Bivol, Beterbiev, and several of the top contenders in thie weight class.
While Benavidez might be able to return to 168 to continue dominating smaller opposition in that weight class, due to the WBC not having a 10-lb rehydration limit, he’s not going to be able to do this much longer physically. Benavidez will be 30 soon, and he’s getting heavier.
If Canelo isn’t going to fight Benavidez, there isn’t reason for ‘The Mexican Monster’ to continue to drain down to the 168-lb weight class. Aside from the recently beaten Jaime Munguia, no one else is popular in that division.
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