In the giddy anticipation of a superfight, no one wants to hear about the fight that should have been made instead. That’s why, as the September 13 date for Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Terence Crawford’s fateful clash approaches, David Benavidez is seemingly being paid no mind at all.
Boxing fans can hardly be blamed. Canelo-Crawford not only is shaping up as the biggest fight of the 2020s so far – though the weak promotion to this point might allow Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury I to edge it out for those honors – but it also is seductive for what is at stake. Crawford is ascending two weight classes to meet Alvarez in his super middleweight lair; given that he has done his best work at welterweight, it feels like Crawford is climbing three. If he pulls off the win, forget just the 2020s – it would be the boxing heist of the century. And as BoxingScene’s Eric Raskin recently pointed out, a victory could even represent a career-best for Alvarez.
There is no shortage of storylines to pore over, of potential outcomes to consider. And yet Canelo-Crawford isn’t the best fight either man could be in this September. Crawford chasing the redheaded lion at all costs over a bout with Jaron “Boots” Ennis or Vergil Ortiz Jnr is somewhat forgivable; he has so much to gain by conquering the significant challenge ahead of him. It’s Alvarez’s choices that rankle a bit more.
Since weighing in over the super middleweight limit ahead of his fight with Alexis Angulo in August 2020, Benavidez has hardly been guilty of a false step. He has maintained his undefeated record, defeating Ronald Ellis, Kyrone Davis, David Lemieux, Caleb Plant, Demetrius Andrade, Oleksandr Gvozdyk and David Morrell Jnr. The Plant fight was the only among them in which Benavidez needed to come from behind to win, and “The Mexican Monster” closed the show by battering Plant to within an inch of a stoppage in the later rounds.
After the Plant fight, Benavidez emerged as the top contender to Alvarez’s throne in the super middleweight division. Benavidez’s relentless come-forward style against Alvarez’s powerful counterpunching seemed like a certain recipe for fireworks.
Through no fault of Benavidez’s own, though, Alvarez decided to go in another direction. Then another. And another. By the time the super middleweight champion Alvarez fought Edgar Berlanga, Benavidez had had enough of the waiting game and departed the division for light heavyweight. Despite two quality wins in his new division, he has yet to get a shot at the lineal title there, either.
Rather than participate in a superfight next week, Benavidez will take on Anthony Yarde in November. Yarde is brave and brash but a known quantity who has been stopped twice. For Benavidez, there is little to be gained and much to be lost in the fight.
Canelo-Crawford is a compelling matchup and a fight that has the capacity to draw more eyeballs than any other possible pairing among active, world-class boxers. (If we’re talking living boxers, well, an exhibition in the spring will probably command more attention.) But it is less than the certain barnburner Canelo-Benavidez would seem to have been. Nor does it particularly represent progress for the super middleweight division. If Crawford pulls off the miracle, he is likelier to retire or enter an immediate rematch rather than fight, say, interim titleholder Christian Mbilli.
Benavidez getting his shot at Canelo remains technically possible, though Canelo has shown little interest in fighting him. And he now operates at a division above Alvarez – though Canelo has fought at 175lbs twice before and once expressed interest in fighting at cruiserweight. In time, he’ll probably get his long-awaited shot at the current or former king at light heavy, Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol, respectively.
But Benavidez also deserved to get a shot at Canelo. He didn’t. And now Canelo is approaching a fight so packed with star power that Benavidez has been relegated to the shadows. We’ll be watching on September 13, rapt with anticipation to see Canelo in with elite opposition for the first time in several fights and to watch Crawford try to tackle this unique challenge. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that Alvarez’s best possible partner for a superfight would have been the fighter who was standing in front of him all along.
Owen Lewis is a freelance writer with bylines at Defector Media, The Guardian and The Second Serve. He is also a writer and editor at BoxingScene. His beats are tennis, boxing, cycling, books, travel and anything else that satisfies his meager attention span. He is on Bluesky and can be contacted at owentennis11@gmail.com.
