By: Sean Crose
“I took off about three weeks,” super middleweight terror David Benavidez recently told Fight Hype. Now, after having relaxed a bit after stopping Caleb Plant earlier this year, Benavidez is back in the gym looking to fight again. “I was excited because I thought we were going to make the fight happen with Canelo,” he said. “I was confident it was going to happen, but unfortunately he went another route.” Indeed, a Canelo-Benavidez fight has been anticipated by fans for some time now. Still, words ha arrived that Benavidez will be facing David Morrell next. Needless to say, it’s all news to Benavidez.
“There’s no fight with Morrell lined up,” he said. “We’re not fighting Morrell…I didn’t agree to anything. I’m trying to make the big fights happen.” Indeed, with Canelo at least temporarily out of the picture, Benavidez has someone else on his mind. “We want to fight Jaime Munguia,” he said, “but if we can’t get him we’ll probably do Morrell…there’s a lot of fake news out there.” Benavidez is openly annoyed by some of the uncertainty that comes with being a top level contemporary fighter.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” he said, the conversation turning back to undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo. “I don’t like to disrespect fighters…but they (Canelo’s team) didn’t even reply to the offer (that Benavidez’ team sent).” With a lot of money at stake, Benavidez made it clear that he can only arrive at one conclusion. “He don’t want to fight me…he’d rather negotiate with somebody who hasn’t fought in three (actually two) years. No disrespect to Charlo, but he still hasn’t fought in three years. He’s going to have ring rust.”
Although willing to give Canelo his due, Benavidez feels he’s owed a shot at boxing’s biggest name. “He’s the best,” said Benavidez, “and I’ve been his mandatory for three years to fight for the WBC title. I thought champions were supposed to fight their mandatories.” Benavidez added that at this point he simply wants Canelo to be clear with him on the current situation. “If he’s not going to fight me,” said Benavidez, “he should let me know. I’ll go up to 175.” That, of course, might disappoint a lot of fans, something Canelo is undoubtedly aware of. “Everybody wants to see the fight,” Benavidez said. “I think the walls are kind of closing in on him.”