A year ago, nobody thought Canelo and Crawford would ever face each other. Now, there's a chance it could happen in 2025. Canelo currently holds all the belts at super-middleweight. Crawford just moved up to super-welterweight and won a title there.
Canelo defended his unified world super-middleweight champion status recently. For this fight to happen, Crawford would need to jump up two weight classes.
Benavidez, who's now fighting at light-heavyweight after he couldn't get a fight with Canelo, shared his thoughts with Sean Zittel in an interview.
"To be honest Crawford is one of the best technical fighters I've ever seen, but when he went to 154, I'm not saying he had problems but he looked like he didn't have the power he had at 147, and he'd still have to come up two weight classes."
Benavidez thinks Canelo will win because he's used to fighting at super-middleweight. He believes it's hard to move up in weight and be successful right away.
"Crawford is a one of a kind fighter, and especially if he knows he's going to 168 he'll probably bulk up, but weight classes have to be respected. Canelo is the more natural super-middleweight."
Even though Crawford's a great fighter, Benavidez sees too many challenges for him in this potential match-up.
"If Crawford is going against Canelo, in his first fight at 168, he has a lot of disadvantages against him, so I feel like Canelo would win. He's bigger and more experienced so I give him the edge."
Benavidez and Canelo have been rivals for a long time. Someone who's sparred with both fighters has also made a prediction about who would win. We'll have to wait and see if this fight actually happens and who comes out on top.