WBC interim super middleweight champion David Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) posted a call out to undisputed 168-lb champ Canelo Alvarez, urging him to face him next in September so the two can give the fans a fight they want to see.
Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) is coming off an unimpressive twelve round unanimous decision win over John Ryder from last weekend, and he says he now wants to face undefeated WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol in a rematch in September.
“Let’s give the people what they want to see,” said David Benavidez on social media in a message to Canelo Alvarez.
Most boxing fans would rather see Canelo go in another direction towards a title defense against ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez, as he’s been waiting years for this fight, and also, few people believe Alvarez will have any chance of defeating Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) in the rematch.
Last May, Bivol took Canelo to school, easily dominating him in a fight that showed a huge difference in skill level between the two. Bivol was world’s better than Canelo in every department, making him look like a rank amateur and beating him far worse than Floyd Mayweather Jr had done a decade earlier.
“They didn’t get the decapitation that they wanted. They wanted to see Ryder out cold and potentially get excited about a Benavidez or Bivol fight,” said Ade Oladipo to talkSPORT Boxing about Canelo Alvarez’s disappointing performance against a very average-looking John Ryder last Saturday night in Guadalajara, Mexico.
“I thought they walked away, almost fearing the Bivol fight. I don’t know if we want to see him [Canelo] against Bivol anymore, and maybe he is on the slide. Their champion has been doing it since he was 15. It’s a long career.
“No one does 60+ fights anymore in today’s boxing. You look at all of them. Thirty fights, 20-something fights, a lot of these guys. The sparring, the silk pajamas, as you mentioned.
“He [Canelo] was on Forbes richest athletes list. I think he was number [five] for $110 million last year. I just wonder what’s the drive now, what’s the want?” said Ade about Alvarez.
“I saw his debut in Vegas when he fought Miguel Cotto’s brother [Jose]. He was 18 then,” said Gareth A. Davies about Canelo. “I was live for his fight against Floyd Mayweather and Erislandy Lara. That was a very close fight.
“I do think he’s slowed. I don’t know if he’s sleeping in silk pajamas, but he’s hitting that little white golfball a lot, and he’s gotten down to an eight handicap. He’s riding the horses a lot on the plain a lot and camping out.
“I think he’s the only one of his six boxing brothers that is fighting professionally now. He has a half a billion in the bank. 62 fights by 32. He’s had a long career.
“He’s not gone long left. Altitude played a part, as John Ryder’s toughness. I think Canelo felt that after putting him down early, he was going to get the finish, but John was very, very resilient.
“There was power in Canelo’s shots, but again, he wasn’t feinting much. He was just throwing big shots. He was wearing John down. I don’t want to be too critical of him because he is a modern legend.
“You can make a case for him being the pound-for-pound #1. He’s a four-weight world champion and we do get very critical of very skilled elite-level fighters. We want more, and we’re greedy. There’s greediness in us to create poetry around them, to be inspired by them, and in many ways, the inspirational performance here came from Ryder, not Canelo.
“There was a hubbub from those 49,997 people and the three people screaming in the corner for John Ryder on Saturday night because people weren’t getting bored, but they were going, ‘Why hasn’t he [Canelo] finished him yet? Why hasn’t he finished him?’ They got blood, but they didn’t get the finish,” said Gareth.
