David Benavidez says he’s going to stay at 168 long enough to take all four of undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez’s belts.
Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) is obsessed with Canelo, like he can’t get him out of his mind for some reason, and it’s troubling to listen to how tormented he sounds when discussing the Mexican superstar.
‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez needs to put Canelo out of his mind and focus on the task at hand against Demetrius Andrade on November 25th because that’s a 50-50 fight. Benavidez almost lost his last fight against former Canelo knockout victim Caleb Plant, and he was getting his head boxed off by the Tennesse native.
What Benavidez, 26, doesn’t understand is Canelo is waiting him out, just like he did with Gennadiy Golovkin, but he’s doing it in a different way. Instead of waiting for Benavidez to get old like he did with GGG, he’s seemingly delaying the fight, knowing that he’s growing out of the division and will soon be forced to move up to 175.
The chances are high that the 26-year-old Benavidez will be forced to move up to where he belongs at 175 because he can’t artificially keep himself in a weight class below his body frame for much longer. He’s this era’s version of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., a fighter who was essentially a light heavyweight, who could boil down to 160 and use his tremendous size advantage to win fights against his smaller opponents.
Once Chavez Jr. could no longer drain to 160, he was forced to fight his appropriate weight class at 168 & 175, and his career petered out.
Benavidez is already looking like a full-fledged light heavyweight, bigger than the 175-lb champions Artur Beterbiev & Demtriy Bivol, but he’s draining himself to keep himself in the 168-lb division, waiting & hoping to get that big cash-out fight with Canelo.
In the kick-off press conference with Demetrius Andrade for their fight on November 25th, Benavidez looked like he was over 200+ lbs, and it’s clear that he’s going to need to drain down considerably to make the 168-lb weight limit.
He’ll likely drop 10 to 15 lbs of muscle and then lose the last 20 lbs of water weight to get to 168. Benavidez looked like a man on death’s door, making weight for his last fight against Caleb Plant last March, and it was clear from looking at his emaciated state that he’d pushed himself to the brink to get down to 168.
All Canelo needs to do is wait another year or two, and Benavidez will fail to make weight and possibly lose a fight or two due to him being drained. Once that happens, he’s history, and Canelo’ll ignore him forever.
“I’m not going nowhere. As I tell you that I’m going to be the best in this generation, I really believe that in myself, and I’m going to put the work in,” said David Benavidez to Fight Hub TV.
“Whenever they see me, if it’s now, two years or five years, I’m not going nowhere, and I’m going to be here, and I’m going to take all his belts,” Benavidez said about Canelo Alvarez.
“I believe I’m the best in the world, and we have to be patient. With great things, you need a lot of patience, and that’s what it is.
“I don’t feel like [Jermell] Charlo gave it his all [against Canelo]. I don’t like to speak from their perspective. I just felt like he could have done way more,” Benavidez continued. “Also, I feel the same way about Canelo.
“They didn’t throw too many punches. I think Canelo threw 350 or something like that. That’s a little bit. In an 18 x 18 ring, but Charlo has never been knocked out either, so we can’t say, ‘Charlo should have been knocked out.’
“It was a good fight. Canelo did what he had to do. The same he’s always looked. I don’t care. I’m saying that because that’s what he [Canelo] said in the press conference,” said Benavidez.
