Canelo, who's 34 and holds all the belts at super-middleweight, will fight William Scull on May 3 in Saudi Arabia. If he wins, he'll be a two-time undisputed champion. But fans have been asking for him to face Benavidez for a while now.
Benavidez, known as the 'Mexican Monster', used to be the 168lbs champion. He's now moved up and holds the WBC light-heavyweight title. He's never lost a fight and has knocked out 80% of his opponents.
Benavidez got tired of waiting for a shot at Canelo and moved up in weight. He told ALL THE SMOKE about the big offer Canelo turned down:
"I knew one day people were gonna ask for that fight and I feel like it's amazing how much attention this fight is getting, and I think even winning more right now the more he's putting it off. They offered him $70 million to fight me that's before pay-per-view, you guys can call Al Haymon and ask him that, imagine after pay-per-view."
But Canelo doesn't think Benavidez deserves the fight. He told Forbes why he's not interested:
"You know, I don't really know how to answer this question, but I think the way he talks, he thinks he's Superman, right? And he is very disrespectful—not just with me, with everybody. And he's accomplished nothing. He's not even a champion, and he's not even in my weight class already. And you know, it's a lot of things there that don't make sense. And plus, at this point in my career, I can do whatever I want. And you guys can't take anything away from my career, from my legacy, from anything. Because, you know, if you see my résumé, I fought everybody out there—all the elite fighters out there."
After his May fight, Canelo might face Terence Crawford in September in Las Vegas. Crawford has won world titles in four different weight classes. Meanwhile, Benavidez wants to win all the belts at 175lbs.