Boxing pundit Paulie Malignaggi wants Canelo Alvarez to vacate his remaining three super middleweight titles due to his choosing not to defend against his former WBC mandatory David Benavidez.
It’s not enough that Canelo is defending against his WBA mandatory Edgar Berlanga or that he recently fought his WBO mandatory Jaime Munguia. Malignaggi is angry that he didn’t fight Benavidez while waiting for a few years.
“I don’t care who Canelo fights if he would vacate his [168-lb] titles. I’ve been saying this for two years. I think Benavidez runs him over like a train, like a car stuck on the train tracks,” said pundit Paulie Malignaggi to the talkSport Boxing channel when asked who Canelo Alvarez should fight.
It’s too late to talk about a fight between Canelo and Benavidez. The light heavyweight-sized Benavidez has moved up in weight to 175, where he belongs. He needs to worry about trying to keep his career alive fighting guys his own size, like Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol. Canelo is fighting at 168, and Benavidez is no longer there.
“His [Canelo] apprehension to fight his mandatory continuously only further cements my opinion of that. I don’t think he’s going to fight Benavidez. The only reason I want him to fight Benavidez is for the belts because I don’t even think it would be a good fight,” said Malignaggi.
It would have been nice to see Canelo fight Benavidez at 168, but it didn’t happen. Benavidez didn’t want to fight David Morrell, and fans would have liked that clash. Morrell offered Benavidez a title shot, but he didn’t want it.
“If he would vacate his titles, he could go on a retirement tour like Chavez Sr did at the end of his career. I’m more excited about other things than I am with Canelo. Crawford-Madrimov was really exciting,” said Malignaggi.
Canelo isn’t going to vacate his titles to please Malignaggi. He’s going to hold onto them for as long as he feels hie needs them. He gave up his IBF title recently when the sanctioning body attempted to get him to defend against William Scull. If the other three alphabet belts attempt to force Canelo to fight someone he doesn’t want to face, he’ll give up those belts too.
“One thing I don’t like about Turki Alalshikh is he talks like he’s making tune-up fights. He keeps talking about what you’ll do after this fight and after this fight. These aren’t tune-up fights. You can’t predict the winners.
“We saw that when he tried to make AJ-Wilder. He was overlooking Zhang as if he didn’t exist, and then Zhang ended up knocking out Wilder, and then that imploded. He’s done that again with Crawford and Vergil Ortiz now. Since he couldn’t make the Canelo fight, he’s talking about, ‘I’m going to make it with Vergil Ortiz,” said Malignaggi.
In hindsight, it was a mistake to match Deontay Wilder against Zhilei Zhang because we’d already seen the Bronze Bomber lose his previous fight against Joseph Parker. Deontay looked like he could no longer pull the trigger on his punches. Putting him in with Zhang was a bad idea.
“Dude, Vergil Ortiz and Bohachuk just fought a neck-and-neck fight. About half the world thought Bohachuk won. Don’t you think that should be a rematch instead? Why are we trying to push that [Crawford-Ortiz Jr], and he was talking about that before Vergil fought Bohachuk,” said Malignaggi.
It’s easy to see why Turki wanted to make a fight between Vergil and Crawford rather than an Ortiz-Bohachuk rematch. Despite the fight being exciting, there would be no money in a Vergil vs. Bohachuk rematch. There would be a lot more fan interest in a clash between Vergil and Crawford next.
Moreover, it would be risky for Turki to put Vergil Jr. back in with Bohachuk because he might not get lucky with the scoring the second time around. The judges gave it to him this time, but that might not happen the second time around.
“So, I love the fights Turki Alalshikh is making, but he’s got to understand that, in my humble opinion, these are not tune-up fights. You can’t talk about them like, ‘Okay, this is what we’re going to do next.’ He’s doing it again with Dubois, as a matter of fact.”
Turki wants to make a fight between Joshua and Tyson Fury. He knows it would be a massive one, and he’s also likely aware of the ages of Fury and Joshua. They’re getting old. Fury, 36, has arguably lost his last two fights and looks washed. Joshua’s career has been artificially resurrected due to his promoter, Eddie Hearn, matching him against four lower-level heavyweights. If Turki doesn’t make the Fury-Joshua fight right now, he’ll lose out.
“I favor AJ in the fight, but Dubois is no pushover. You can’t just make like, Oh, you’re going to make AJ against the winner of Usyk and Fury or whatever you’re going to do as if Dubois doesn’t exist. You have to have a plan both ways,” said Malignaggi.
Dubois, 26, may defeat Joshua, but Turki might choose to put AJ in with Fury anyway because waiting until a rematch takes place would be a mistake. Joshua could lose the rematch, and there would be even less interest in a fight between him and Fury. AJ is fragile, could lose at any time, and might even be beaten by Dubois. As I said, Fury is completely over-the-hill and vulnerable against almost anyone now. We saw that in his fight against 0-0 novice Francis Ngannou.
“If this guy wins, you’re going to go this way. If this guy wins, he’s going to go that way. These are very exciting fights. No matter who wins, you’ve got exciting possibilities, and I’m thankful for that. I think he’s [Turki] done an amazing job.
“This is hard to script unless you make tune-up fights, and one thing Turki is not doing is making tune-up fights. He’s making great,” said Malignaggi.
Turki is more vocal about his ideas than other promoters, and that’s why you hear about his plans to make fights ahead of already compelling matchups. We saw that with Terence Crawford vs. Israil Madrimov. Turki wanted to make the match between Crawford and Canelo. Although Crawford still won, he was almost beaten, and the Canelo fight isn’t happening.
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