David Benavidez hasn’t ruled out fighting David Morrell Jr. next.

The unbeaten WBC interim super middleweight champion confirmed during an interview Tuesday with FightHype.com that he hasn’t agreed to fight Morrell, either. If Canelo Alvarez indeed isn’t an option for Benavidez’s return to the ring in the fall, he would prefer to face Mexican contender Jaime Munguia over Morrell, who belittled Benavidez in a press release that was issued by the unbeaten Cuban southpaw’s publicist Tuesday.

Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) is keeping his options open and refuted reports that a deal for a fight with Morrell has been finalized.

“There’s no fight with Morrell lined up,” Benavidez said. “I just seen that [Monday], that supposedly they said I agreed to the fight. I’m like, ‘Man, this is my first time seeing about this.’ You know, we’re not fighting Morrell. You know, so everything that’s been coming out, saying that we agreed to the fight, I haven’t even seen anything [contract-related]. I didn’t agree to anything. You know, I’m trying to make the big fights happen.

“Right now, we’re trying to look, we wanna make happen, we want to fight Jaime Munguia. He came up to 168. I think that would be a great fight, two big names. But if we can’t get him, you know, we’ll probably do Morrell. But I’m just saying, man, there’s a lotta fake news out there. You know, if it doesn’t come from me, then it’s not official.”

Munguia (42-0, 33 KOs) just beat Ukrainian contender Sergiy Derevyanchenko (14-5, 10 KOs) by unanimous decision in a “Fight of the Year” frontrunner June 10 at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California. A showdown with Morrell (9-0, 8 KOs) would be easier to make because Benavidez and Morrell are both aligned with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions and Showtime, whereas Munguia is represented by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, which has an exclusive streaming deal with DAZN.

The 26-year-old Benavidez still wants to battle Alvarez more than any other opponent, but the Phoenix native has assumed that the Mexican superstar doesn’t want to fight him next. Benavidez confirmed that Haymon made Alvarez an offer of “$45 million-plus, something like that,” to battle Benavidez next, but Benavidez stated that Alvarez’s handlers haven’t responded to it.

“I’ve just been waiting, trying to see what’s gonna happen,” Benavidez said. “I was excited because I thought that we were gonna make the fight happen with Canelo. You know, obviously that’s what everybody’s been wanting to see. You know, PBC and Al Haymon sent him a very lucrative offer. So, I was confident it was gonna happen, but unfortunately he went another route and, you know, now we’re looking for different options right now.”

Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs), boxing’s undisputed super middleweight champion, apparently has expressed more interest in facing another PBC-affiliated fighter, Jermall Charlo, than Benavidez.

ESPN.com’s Mike Coppinger reported recently that the 32-year-old Alvarez and his handlers met with Haymon to discuss the possibility of boxing Charlo next. Charlo remains undefeated (32-0, 22 KOs) and still holds the WBC middleweight title, but the Houston native hasn’t fought in two years.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Benavidez said. “You know, I don’t like to say, I don’t like to disrespect fighters and say that he’s scared and this and that. But they didn’t even reply to the offer. It’s one thing that’s saying you can turn it down or you tell ‘em, ‘We’re just gonna wait one more year, try and get some more money,’ or whatever. They didn’t even reply to it.

“So, imagine you got a deal on the table for $45 million, and nobody replies. Like I don’t know what else to say. I mean, he don’t wanna fight me. You know, he’d rather negotiate with somebody that hasn’t fought in [two] years. No disrespect to Charlo, but he still hasn’t fought in [two] years. He’s gonna have ring rust.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.