The Benavidez family will get to spend the Thanksgiving holiday together.
However, it won’t be at the dinner table but in the ring as David and Jose Jr. will land on the same show.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that plans are in place for the Benavidez brothers to appear in separate bouts as part of a November 25 Showtime Pay-Per-View rumored to take place in San Antonio, Texas. The two leading venues to land the event are the Frost Bank Center (formerly AT&T Center), home to the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, and the oft-used Alamodome.
David Benavidez will face unbeaten former two-division titlist Demetrius Andrade in an interim WBC super middleweight title fight in the evening’s main event. The evening’s co-feature will pit comebacking two-division and reigning WBC middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo versus Jose Benavidez Jr.
It is unclear as this goes to publication if Charlo’s WBC middleweight title will be at stake. Jose Jr. is not ranked by the WBC at either middleweight or junior middleweight, though such matters have a way of being quickly sorted out.
Boxing Scene has learned that the long-parked Rey Vargas-Brandon Figueroa WBC featherweight title consolidation bout is also rumored to land on this card. Representatives for both fighters have informed Boxing Scene—on the condition of anonymity—that they were told the fight would take place on November 25. There is also the likelihood of the fight landing on a December 9 Showtime Championship Boxing event from a location to be determined.
David Benavidez (27-0, 23KOs) made his debut as a PPV headliner in his most recent bout, a twelve-round decision over Caleb Plant in their March 25 grudge match between former super middleweight titlists. The 26-year-old Phoenix native—now based in Washington state—defended his interim WBC super middleweight belt which will be at stake on this show. He remains one of three mandatory challengers for the undisputed super middleweight crown.
Andrade (32-0, 19KOs) will face the first former titlist of his 15-year career, a stunning statistic given he is a former two-division titleholder. The Providence-bred southpaw—who represented the U.S. in the 2008 Beijing Olympics—is 9-0 in title fights spanning junior middleweight and middleweight, though none versus a boxer who’d ever actually captured a major title of their own.
A fight like this was eventually in the cards for Andrade once he opted to sign with Premier Boxing Champions (PBC). He debuted under creator Al Haymon’s banner earlier this January in a ten-round decision over Demond Nicholson and has eyed a big fight ever since. He advanced to the top of the queue in this matchup once it was learned that Benavidez was no longer on course for a previously discussed pairing with secondary WBA titlist David Morrell.
Charlo (32-0, 22KOs) has not fought since a June 2021 win over Juan Macias Montiel in his hometown of Houston, Texas. A combination of a prior training camp injury along with personal issues have kept the two-division titlist out of the ring for more than two years, though he seems to have resolved his mental health concerns that previously held back his ring return.
Jose Benavidez Jr. (28-2-1, 19KOs)—David’s older brother by nearly five years—earned a fifth-round stoppage win over made-to-order Janjanin on August 12 in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
The feat snapped a three-fight winless skid for the former title challenger, who suffered losses to Terence Crawford and Danny Garcia within his last three fights spread out over nearly four years. Wedged in between was a ten-round draw with Francisco Emanuel Torres on a November 2021 Showtime card in Phoenix which featured David in a seventh-round knockout of Kyrone Davis. The night marked the last time they’ve appeared on the same show.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox