Canelo Alvarez is still the face of boxing even after his loss to Bivol. An undisputed super middleweight champion who is constantly chasing greatness and tried to do so when he fought Bivol and fell short. Perhaps Bivol justifies the saying “A good big man always beats a good little man.” In an ideal world, we should be getting Bivol-Beterbiev to find out who is the undisputed champ at light heavyweight but unfortunately, boxing doesn’t function that way. With Canelo pushing for that Bivol rematch, looks like we might get that fight before the Benavidez fight. Canelo has always had certain fighters in his career whose names keep coming around every time he fights, First, it was GGG whose name would always come up every time Canelo fought and then he fought GGG 3 times, I think GGG won 2 of those but that’s a different story and officially Canelo did beat GGG twice out of the 3 fights. Since then, Canelo’s name has been linked to Benavidez. Every time he fights, he is asked about Benavidez, at one point a response from Canelo on Benavidez’s fight was him not wanting to fight Mexican fighters which were taken in all sort of different ways by fans and analyst all around the world including Mayweather, De La Hoya and Malignaggi saying it’s an excuse on not wanting to fight Benavidez since he has already fought Mexican fighters in the past.
Huge hype around the fight:-
With Benavidez stock continuing to rise after the Caleb Plant fight, now that they have a common opponent in Plant, the demand for Canelo – Benavidez from fans continues to rise and rightfully so. Then you add to that other than the fans who are demanding this fight, some big names and legends of the sport are calling for this fight to be made as well. The likes of Mayweather who feels Canelo is ducking Benavidez by not fighting him, and Mike Tyson who calls Benavidez the Mexican Monster and picks him to beat every guy at 168, which essentially means he beats Canelo according to Mike. Oscar also thinks Benavidez beats Canelo, so not only fans but the legends of the sport also want to see this fight which adds to the hype. Also, the winner of this fight can then claim that he is the best Mexican fighter of his generation. The winner of the fight will also get enormous respect from fans around Mexico which would mean so much for the winner considering Mexico as a nation has such immense and passionate boxing fans. Over the years Mexico, as a nation has produced so many legends and icons in the sport and has given us so many classics, this fight has the potential to be a classic and mentioned alongside some great Mexican rivalries of the past. Also, the winner of the fight gets to be mentioned alongside previous Mexican greats.
Seeing the hype around the fight, I think it does it does close to a Million PPV buys in my opinion.
Is Canelo ducking Benavidez?
The narrative is crazy, to even think Canelo is ducking or scared to fight Benavidez when he wants to face Bivol, a guy who already beat Canelo and again would be the favourite in the rematch. Then you add to that Canelo would be paid significantly higher when he fights Benavidez and would draw huge PPV buys compared to the Bivol fight, still, Canelo wants to avenge that loss against Bivol which shows that’s the legacy-defining fight for Canelo. Also, Canelo wants that rematch against Bivol at 175 when Bivol was ready to meet him for the rematch at 168, which tells us something about Canelo. He ain’t ducking, this is some names Canelo faced in his last 8 fights Golovkin, Bivol, Plant, Billy Joe Saunders, Callum Smith, Sergey Kovalev, and Daniel Jacobs. Do these names make you feel that Canelo is picking his opponents carefully? No. Also if you go through Benavidez’s resume before the Plant fight, it isn’t stacked and isn’t impressive. It’s filled with fighters who he was supposed to beat with ease, so Benavidez himself hasn’t taken on any real test until the Caleb Plant fight. The Plant fight was his first real test in my opinion which he passed. I think Canelo fights Benavidez after the Bivol fight but until then Benavidez needs to keep fighting worthy opponents like a Callum Smith next and do a job on him which makes the Canelo fight even more interesting and puts pressure on Canelo to fight him which eventually happens in my opinion.
Who has an advantage?
If you go by their last performances, Canelo is coming after a UD win against GGG, Benavidez on the other hand had a fight against Plant which he won by UD.
Let’s talk about Benavidez and his performance against Plant. It was a fight of 2 halves, where Plant won most of the rounds in 1st half, the 2nd half of the fight was a complete shutout performance from Benavidez with Plant fighting for survival. It was a very good performance from Benavidez but if you observe the performance he showed flaws especially defensively and didn’t look invincible, kept his guard up which allowed Plant to land multiple body shots. Benavidez couldn’t get his offense going until the 2nd half, was unable to close the distance and cut the ring off in 1st half and was outboxed. He might not need to close the distance with Canelo since Canelo prefers fighting in the centre of the ring. However, Plant was able to land a lot of body shots on Benavidez which tells me what Canelo would do if he lands those and he will considering Benavidez doesn’t tend to avoid those which could prove to be a difference in the fight. Benavidez is an excellent fighter and is a volume puncher, his pressure is relentless and he ain’t slowing down be it the 1st round or 12th which can swing the fight in his favour against Canelo.
On the other hand, if you go by Canelo’s last few performances, Canelo hasn’t looked impressive. Went the distance against GGG in the 3rd fight, and looked sluggish and unimpressive. People expected him to stop Golovkin considering how old GGG was and he even performed similarly to his age still Canelo was not able to get the stoppage got many fans questioning whether Canelo is on the slide. Also from a conditioning standpoint, he hasn’t looked great either. In the fight against Bivol, he was gassed in later rounds and couldn’t get his offense going, that’s the most tired I have ever seen Canelo from a conditioning standpoint. Even the Plant and Billy Joe Saunders fight, barring the punch in those fights which stopped the fight, he looked average, wasn’t accurate and was missing a lot of his power punches. He has been relying lately a lot on 1 punch to get the job done which worked in the Plant and Saunders fight but didn’t work against an old GGG and especially Bivol who wasn’t fazed by Canelo’s power.
We all know what Canelo’s skills are and what he is capable of, he is a future hall of famer, an all-time great but his over-reliance on his power to land that 1 signature shot to stop his opponent and his lack of conditioning lately hands the advantage to Benavidez, meanwhile Benavidez’s lack of defense and him wanting to trade punches with his opponent falls in favour of Canelo.
- Skill for Skill:-
- Canelo has better defense, better footwork, punches harder, a solid chin( never been dropped), better feints, and more destructive body shots than Benavidez.
- Benavidez has better hand speed, throws more volume, and has better conditioning than Canelo.
Overall it’s an exciting and fan-friendly fight and I would give the edge to Canelo to win a close decision against Benavidez with Canelo’s experience playing a major factor. However, the version of Canelo that you have seen in the last few fights doesn’t beat Benavidez, he needs to be way better than that which is what makes the fight very interesting at this point.
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