David Benavidez (25-0, 22 KOs) looked powerful in walking down replacement opponent Kyrone Davis (16-3-1, 6 KOs) in battering him until his corner threw in the towel in the seventh round on Saturday night in their main event fight at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
Davis was taking enormous punishment from the fifth round on due to his legs wearing down from the body shots that Benavidez was hitting him with.
Once Davis could no longer move, he was forced to stand and trade with Benavidez and took some massive headshots.
Davis showed a good chin in taking the shots, but his corner did the right thing and threw in the towel to stop the slaughter in the seventh. The official time of the stoppage was at :48 of the seventh.
The former two-time WBC super middleweight champion Benavidez has originally been scheduled to fight former IBF champion Jose Uzcategui in a title eliminator for the WBC belt, but he was popped on a drug test and pulled from the card.
Davis, 27, was then brought in as the capable replacement, and he did a decent job of soaking up punishment, but he never stood a chance with Benavidez due to his complete lack of punching power.
With the victory tonight, it’s going to be interesting to see if Canelo Alvarez will choose to fight Benavidez next May 2022 in his next fight. Canelo needs an opponent, and Benavidez would be the ideal guy if he wants to gain respect from the boxing public.
The U.S fans want to see Canelo fight Benavidez, as they’ve watched the Mexican star fight belt-holders that brought very little to the table for the last three years.
Benavidez looked vulnerable enough tonight to potentially get Canelo to take the fight. If Canelo is worried about getting beaten by the young lion Benavidez, he might feel a little more confident after seeing him struggle at times tonight.
If Benavidez can’t get the fight with Canelo, Jermall Charlo would be a good option if he’s willing to come up to 168 to fight him. Charlo has traded trash talk with Benavidez recently, and he might want to face him if he doesn’t get picked out by Canelo. Charlo is trying to jump the line to go from 160 to challenge Canelo for his four titles.
In the chief support bout, Jose Benavidez Jr. (27-1-1, 18 KOs) fought to a controversial 10 round majority draw against Emanuel Torres 17-3-1, 5 KOs) in a middleweight bout. Benavidez Jr. looked sluggish at the weight, but he did just enough to get a draw. The scores were:
- 96-94 Benavidez
- 95-95
- 95-95
“There’s nobody else for Canelo to fight,” said Benavidez after the fight. “I feel like I’m a bigger guy, a stronger guy with a lot of speed.
“Obviously, a lot of people say I’m an easy walk in the park for Canelo, but they say that about all my opponents. I don’t have defense, but I’d rather get hit.
“I know how strong I am and I know how much pressure I put on and I know how these guys tend to break down towards the end of the fight. I know a fight with Canelo won’t be easy, but I’m willing to give my heart and my soul in the ring and I know I can get it done.
“I’m going to keep winning my fights in a dominant fashion. In my last five fights, it’s been no competition. I just go in there and walk guys down, and I’m not just throwing one punch. I’m throwing punches in bunches,” said Benavidez.
“I’m doing stuff that no other 168-pounder does. Six and eight punch combinations, body shots and a great jab. I feel like I deserve that fight [with Canelo]. Until I get that fight, I’m going to keep knocking down whoever they put in front of me.
“If they want to put five guys in front of me. that’s fine. I’ll do that until I get a fight against Canelo. The fans are going to keep asking for that fight. I’ve been the #1 contender for three fights already.
“We’ll keep going and I don’t mind beating these guys to get to that spot because I know I’m better than everybody and I’ll prove it in the ring,” said Benavidez.
“I’m willing to fight whoever, but you some the incident with [Jermall] Charlo talking all that, but then he didn’t want to fight. But I feel like that’s the narrative for these other fighters.
“They act like they want to fight and then when it’s time to fight, they don’t want to fight. I would love to fight Edgar Berlanga too, a hard Puerto Rican puncher.
“I feel like there’s a lot of good fights to be made, but I feel that people are scared to take that risk. But if you really want to be the best, you shouldn’t be scared. I would love to fight Charlo, Berlanga and Caleb Plant still, Callum Smith.
“If I’ve got to go up to 175, I’ll go up to 175. It doesn’t matter because U feel I’ve got 10 or 12 years left in this professional boxing game. There’s a lot of names to fight out there, and I’ll fight every single one of them,” said Beanvidez.
Give the man a good contender * let’s see what else he has.