One of the main reasons David Benavidez left the super middleweight division behind was because he couldn’t get a fight with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. But Benavidez is not looking to return to the weight class now that Canelo has been dethroned by Terence Crawford for the undisputed championship at 168lbs.
“I’m done with [super middleweight],” Benavidez, 30-0 (24 KOs), said in an interview with Marcos Villegas of Fight Hub TV. “I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Crawford. He put on a hell of a performance. He’s up there on the Mount Rushmore of the greatest fighters of all time. Let Crawford do his thing, bro. At the end of the day, I have no interest in fighting Crawford. I have no interest in going down to 168. Yeah, it would be dope winning all the titles, but I’m way past that at 168. I wouldn’t even go down to 168 for Canelo. I’m just being real with you.”
Benavidez was still the interim WBC super middleweight titleholder when he fought Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the WBC’s interim light heavyweight belt in June 2024. Benavidez defeated Gvozdyk by unanimous decision and gained additional leverage.
Benavidez had to choose which interim title to hold onto, though, and opted for 175lbs, where he was more likely to receive a shot at the winner of the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol rivalry than he would back down at super middleweight with Canelo. Benavidez also added the secondary WBA “regular” title in February, three weeks before Beterbiev-Bivol II, with a decision victory over David Morrell.
Bivol vacated his WBC belt earlier this year after seizing the undisputed championship from Beterbiev in their rematch. Benavidez was subsequently upgraded to the sanctioning body’s primary titleholder.
Benavidez has now been at 175lbs for more than a year. He’s not going to go down in weight. He has options at light heavyweight – if he comes out victorious in his November 22 headlining bout against Anthony Yarde in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – and any switch in divisions is only going to be upward on the scales.
“I’m not saying I’m scared of Crawford or whatever. Crawford’s the man at 168. That’s his weight class. I’m done at 168,” Benavidez said. “They can throw whatever money they want at me. My job is not only to get the money. My job is to give myself the best chance to win and to give myself the best chance of looking good.”
Benavidez is still hoping for a shot at Bivol, who remains the true light heavyweight king and has the IBF, WBA and WBO belts and the Ring Magazine championship. He also is interested in a potential clash with unified cruiserweight titleholder Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez.
Benavidez wasn’t surprised that Canelo lost, but he’s not reveling in the defeat. The result was bittersweet.
“I kinda felt like that could’ve been me,” Benavidez said. “That was my moment. If I would’ve got in there, I know I would’ve beat him. [...] That’s why it didn’t happen, because Canelo knows that would’ve happened.”
Benavidez believes that Canelo still could take up the challenge someday.
“I’m in such [a] good position right now that it could happen at 175,” Benavidez said, soon clarifying that it’s not at the top of his mind.
“I’m not focused on Canelo,” he said. “I got my own stuff going on. But there might be a way to make that fight happen. I’m not really worried about that. I’m just thinking about the fighters I got to take out. And imagine I go in there and do everything I say I'm going to do. I go in there and beat Yarde, then I go fight Bivol or I go fight Beterbiev and I beat those two fighters, the fight with Canelo is 100 times bigger than it was back then.”
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
