Eddie Hearn says he views the Canelo Alvarez vs. David Benavidez fight as one that will be a huge one for the future after the Mexican superstar faces Gennadiy Golovkin & Dmitry Bivol in his next two fights.
Before that fight can be made a reality, Hearn says he wants to see Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) fight Caleb Plant or Jermall Charlo to help build the eventual Benavidez-Canelo fight into a much bigger one.
Canelo has already asked Benavidez, Plant & Charlo to fight each other, and he’ll face the last man standing. Until recently, only Benavidez seemed willing to take those fights, but now Plant (21-1, 12 KOs) is expressing interest in facing him.
Although Jermall (32-0, 22 KOs) says he’s willing to Benavidez, there is one caveat: He won’t fight Benavidez until 2023.
Some see that as a sign that Jermall isn’t serious about fighting Benavidez and is merely stretching it out long enough to get the Canelo payday for himself without needing to risk his hide against the “Mexican Monster,” the nickname Mike Tyson has given to him.
It’s believed that Canelo will be targeting a fight against the unbeaten Charlo next year, as long as he wins his next two fights against Golovkin and Bivol.
“I think the Canelo – Benavidez fight is a very big fight. We know we’re going to go GGG – Bivol,” said Eddie Hearn to DAZN Boxing Show on Monday.
“I see Benavidez as a very big fight for Canelo Alvarez,” Hearn continued. “To make that fight even bigger, I’d like to see him [Benavidez] fight one real fighter. Just one, and that would be against Caleb Plant or [Jermall] Charlo. They’re two brilliant fighters and in-house [PBC] fighters,” said Hearn.
It’s safe to say that you can count Jermall out for a fight against Benavidez because he wants the match to take place in 2023. It’s unclear why Charlo wants to wait until next year to fight Benavidez other than to avoid a loss.
Next month, Charlo will be defending his WBC middleweight title against Maciej Sulecki in a gimme-level fight on June 18th. That fight is expected to be a piece of cake for Jermall, so it’s odd that he wants to wait until next year to face Benavidez.
“Plant vs. Benavidez is the one,” said Hearn. “These guys who are chasing Canelo Alvarez, that payday, that shot at excellence, just give themselves a much better chance to get that if they get that big fight. Canelo respects that,” said Hearn.
After the way that Benavidez destroyed David Lemieux last Saturday night, it wouldn’t be surprising if Plant has lost interest in fighting him.
“That would be a really big fight. Let’s make it bigger,” Hearn said of the Canelo vs. Benavidez fight.
