Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and David Benavidez might face each other in the ring, but Canelo doesn't seem too keen. He says Benavidez only brings extra weight to the table and wants $200 million for the ...
Benavidez, known as 'The Mexican Monster', is the WBC super-middleweight mandatory challenger. At 27, he recently moved up to light-heavyweight for his last fight. Meanwhile, Canelo holds all the belts at super-middleweight and will defend them against unbeaten Edger Berlanga on September 14 in Las Vegas.
Former world champion Paulie Malignaggi thinks Benavidez would easily beat Canelo. He's believed this for two years now. In a recent interview with talkSPORT Boxing, Malignaggi said:
"I don't think he's gonna fight Benavidez, the only reason I wanna see him fight Benavidez is for the belts because I don't even think it would be a good fight. I'm more excited about other things than I am about Canelo."
Malignaggi thinks Benavidez would "run him [Canelo] over like a train running over a car that's stuck in the train tracks." He's frustrated that Canelo has avoided his mandatory challenger for three years.
"The fact he's been allowed to avoid his mandatory for three years is absolutely appalling. The sanctioning bodies should be ashamed of themselves, absolutely disgraceful."
Malignaggi believes Canelo's $200 million price tag for the Benavidez fight shows he's looking for easy fights later in his career.
There's also talk about a potential fight between Canelo and Terence Crawford. Malignaggi isn't too excited about this idea. He thinks weight classes exist for a reason and suggests Crawford should fight Israil Madrimov instead.
"I think if anything that fight right there should tell you he's not able to go up that many more weight classes."
Canelo might consider fighting Crawford but wants a lot of money for it. Malignaggi thinks Canelo is trying to take advantage of the big paydays Turki Alalshikh offers, which has offended the Saudi boxing promoter.
As things stand, fans will have to wait and see if Canelo decides to take on Benavidez or if he'll continue to look elsewhere for his next big payday.