David Benavidez never got to fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez when both were still at super middleweight, when Benavidez was both the mandatory challenger and the de facto top remaining contender for Alvarez’s championship.

But that won’t keep Benavidez, who’s now a light heavyweight contender, from being able to enjoy an expected fight between Alvarez and Terence Crawford, which could take place this September at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, according to The Ring Magazine.

“It’s a good fight. It’s a good fight for both of them,” Benavidez said on The Ariel Helwani Show. “I think it’s more important for Crawford than anybody, but I think if anybody can beat Canelo, I think Crawford could. I think it’s just the size plays a massive difference. But it’s a good fight. I have no bad feelings toward that fight.”

Canelo turned pro at junior welterweight as a teenager and has moved up over the years, unifying world titles and winning the Ring championship at junior middleweight, becoming the lineal champion at middleweight, earning undisputed status at super middleweight – where he still owns three of the four major belts – and even briefly holding a title at light heavyweight.

Crawford is a former Ring champion at lightweight, was undisputed at junior welterweight and welterweight, and now has a world title at junior middleweight. He would be moving up two weight classes to take on Alvarez. And while Crawford is about the same height as Alvarez, we’ve seen that weight classes can matter – as when Jermell Charlo, then the undisputed champ at 154, seemed undersized against Alvarez at 168 in their 2023 fight.

But Crawford has a pretty good shot at victory in the eyes of Benavidez. 

“I give him a 7 out of a 10,” Benavidez said. “Crawford is good. I think he’s been knowing that he’s going to fight Canelo for a long, long time. Crawford, he likes to pick up the weights, so I’m sure he’s been working on the weights for a long, long time. Crawford, when a person has a big IQ like that, if you do enough weights and you stay working for a long time, you have a puncher’s chance. You can definitely make the other guy uncomfortable and hurt him a couple times. Crawford’s a really good fighter. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins.”

Meanwhile, there’s still some disappointment from Benavidez that he didn’t get to face Alvarez himself – “A little bit, but I don’t wanna seem like a hater,” he told Helwani – but Benavidez prefers to focus on what’s in front of him. 

He’s just headlined a pay-per-view with Saturday’s victory over David Morrell and remains in mandatory position to challenge the winner of the February 22 rematch between undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.

“I’m blessed and I got my position right here. I’m in a big position as well,” Benavidez said. “I’m just happy for Crawford that he’s able to get a big fight like that, too.”

And he thinks a fight with Alvarez is still possible.

“I think it will happen,” Benavidez said. “I just got to keep doing what I’m doing. I think now, what I’ve shown is I’m a big enough name. David Morrell wasn’t really that known, but we still sold out 20,000 people in T-Mobile Arena. I’m sure the pay-per-views [buys] are pretty good. I think I’m making my case. 

“And I still have a lot of room to grow. I don’t know when Canelo’s going to retire, but by the time maybe in a couple years, this fight will probably be even bigger than it was when people first talked about it. I’ll have more titles. Canelo will probably have more titles. And it’ll just make for a bigger fight – kind of like Mayweather-Pacquiao.”

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2 and @UnitedBoxingPod. He is the co-host of the United Boxing Podcast. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.