Canelo Alvarez’s promoter Eddie Hearn says David Benavidez is an “easier” fight for the Mexican star than WBA light heavyweight Dmitry Bivol.
Fans want to know why Canelo has avoided Benavidez for the last four years when he could have fought him to prove Hearn’s theory of him being an easy mark.
If Benavidez was the soft touch that Hearn believes, why is Canelo fighting John Ryder (32-5, 19 KOs) on May 6th instead of him?
Hearn’s wording of calling Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) an “much easier” fight for Canelo than Bivol seems a little off because there’s nothing easy about ‘The Mexican Monster’ for anybody, particularly a short, stationary fighter like Alvarez.
“David Benavidez is a much easier fight for Canelo than Bivol at 175,” said Hearn to Secondsout. “As good as Benavidez, and it’s a great fight.”
If Canelo doesn’t show improvements over what we saw of him in his last two fights against 40-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin and Bivol, he might lose to Ryder on May 6th.
At that point, it won’t matter whether Benavidez is easier or a tougher opponent for Canelo than Bivol. Losing to Ryder, a fringe-level guy, would show clearly that Canelo is shot and would stand no chance against Benavidez.
Many boxing fans see it as pointless for Canelo to take the rematch with WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) in September because he doesn’t belong inside the same ring with the 175-pounder.
We saw that last May when Canelo was soundly beaten by Bivol in Las Vegas in a fight in which he appeared to lose 10-2.
The three judges on duty that night scored the fight an identical 115-113, but those scores didn’t match what happened inside the ring. Bivol totally outclassed Canelo, making him look like a flawed amateur.
“All he’s thinking about beyond John Ryder is avenging that defeat [against Bivol],” said Hearn. “The most important thing in his career is beating Dmitry Bivol because everyone is going, ‘That’s a bad fight for you. I don’t think you should take that fight.’
“That’s the worse thing you can say to Canelo Alvarez. Benavidez has a three-fight deal with PBC. For Canelo, it’s going to be Ryder and Bivol, and then after that, why not David Benavidez?
“The next fight is Bivol. Contractually, we have to go through that process for the rematch. We’re already close to making that fight,” said Hearn.
What Canelo should do is forget about Bivol and instead focus on defending his undisputed super middleweight championship against his #1 WBC mandatory Benavidez because he’s been waiting for his shot at the title for two years.
Fans in North America would prefer watching Canelo fight Benavidez rather than Bivol because they already know what’s going to happen to the Mexican star when he faces Dmitry again. It’s not even a fair fight because Bivol is world’s better than Canelo.
