David Benavidez expects November 25 to be quite a successful night for his fighting family.
The unbeaten WBC interim super middleweight champion is completely confident that he’ll beat the most accomplished opponent of his career, two-division champion Demetrius Andrade, in their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event. Benavidez is almost as anxious about the co-feature that night, in which his older brother, Jose Benavidez Jr., will face undefeated WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo in a 10-round, non-title fight.
Houston’s Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) will end a 29-month layoff in their bout at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino’s Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, which was officially announced Wednesday. Phoenix’s Jose Benavidez Jr. (28-2-1, 19 KOs) isn’t a natural middleweight, but David Benavidez believes the former WBA interim super lightweight champion can knock off the heavily favored Charlo.
“It’s gonna be a great fight,” David Benavidez told BoxingScene.com. “I feel like it’s a perfect fight for my brother. A lot of people are overlooking my brother, but I know my brother. He has a lot of talent. He has a lot of experience himself, over 200 amateur fights. He had a belt at 140. He fought Terence Crawford, gave Terence Crawford a good fight. He’s been coming back. He fought Danny Garcia, gave Danny Garcia a good fight.”
Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs), a three-weight world champion and one of boxing’s best pound-for-pound, has acknowledged that Jose Benavidez Jr. gave him one of his toughest fights in October 2018 at CHI Health Center in Crawford’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. Benavidez lost that bout by 12th-round technical knockout, but he tested Crawford at times, despite that he noticeably favored the right leg that was damaged during the aforementioned shooting in August 2016.
The 31-year-old Benavidez has since settled for a 10-round majority draw with underdog Francisco Torres (17-4-1, 5 KOs) in November 2021 and suffered a 12-round, majority-decision defeat to former two-division champion Danny Garcia (37-3, 21 KOs) in July 2022.
Jose Benavidez Jr. is 1-1 in bouts contested within the middleweight division, but David Benavidez has seen a very motivated version of him in the gym.
“All these experiences he’s been going through these past three years,” David Benavidez said, “you know, even after him being shot and coming back from that, I think it makes for a great Cinderella story. He’s been working hard and I’ve been staying motivated with him in the gym, too. So, I feel like this is gonna be the biggest upset in boxing, when my brother goes in there and beats Charlo.”
The 33-year-old Charlo hasn’t fought since winning his tougher-than-anticipated 12-round title defense against Mexico’s Juan Macias Montiel (23-6-2, 23 KOs) by unanimous decision in June 2021 at Toyota Center in Houston. The former IBF junior middleweight champion admitted earlier this year that mental health struggles have partially prevented him from ending his lengthy layoff sooner.
David Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) is listed as a 4-1 favorite to defeat Andrade (32-0, 19 KOs), a southpaw from Providence, Rhode Island who has fought only once in the super middleweight division.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.