LAS VEGAS – There isn’t a fight David Benavidez wants more than a career-defining showdown with Canelo Alvarez.
Jose Benavidez Sr., David’s father and trainer, doesn’t envision that lucrative fight for the Mexican superstar’s four super middleweight titles ever taking place. Benavidez Sr. obviously hopes he is wrong, but he wouldn’t blame Alvarez or his handlers if he stays away from his bigger, younger, undefeated son, who will battle Caleb Plant on Saturday night at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
“If I had Canelo Alvarez, if I was Eddy Reynoso, I would never let Canelo fight ‘The Mexican Monster,’ ” Benavidez Sr. told BoxingScene.com following an open workout Wednesday at MGM Grand. “He’s young, hungry, you know, and what we can see with Canelo is he started at 14 years old. He likes to play a lot of golf and now he’s going out a little bit and he has a lot of businesses, and he networks. We’re focused a hundred percent on boxing.”
The 32-year-old Alvarez (58-2-2, 39 KOs) has scheduled his 63rd professional fight for May 6. The four-division champion will box British southpaw John Ryder (32-5, 18 KOs) in what figures to be a sold-out Akron Stadium in Zapopan, Mexico, just outside of Alvarez’s hometown of Guadalajara.
Benavidez Sr. suspects that Alvarez will relinquish his WBC belt before he would fight David Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs), who will defend the WBC interim 168-pound championship against Plant (22-1, 13 KOs) in their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event (9 p.m. ET; $74.99). Alvarez will defend his IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight crowns versus Ryder, who owns the WBO interim title, in a 12-rounder that will headline a DAZN Pay-Per-View event.
“It’s gonna be so hard to do what Canelo did in boxing, but he has a lot of fights,” Benavidez Sr. said. “He wore himself out with all these fights. He was super disciplined. A lot of people don’t see it, but the body’s not the same. He has a lot of miles on him. And like I said, if I was his trainer I would never let him fight David. So, I think that’s what’s gonna happen. They’re gonna stay away, they’re gonna leave that [WBC] belt and they’re gonna go through maybe two, three more fights, and then he’s gonna think about retiring.”
Alvarez, who will turn 33 on July 18, turned pro at the age of 15. He was a junior welterweight when he stopped Abraham Gonzalez (then 0-1) in the fourth round of his pro debut in October 2005 in Tonala, Mexico.
Seventeen years later, Alvarez has won world titles in the junior middleweight, middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight divisions. Alvarez also remains a consensus top-five fighter, pound-for-pound, in the sport.
“He’s young,” Benavidez Sr. said. “He’s 32, but he has a lotta miles on him. He’s been fighting since he was 14 years old, 15 years old. It’s just a lotta miles, you know? You can only get so much from the body, you know?”
David Benavidez is still just 26, despite that he made his pro debut nearly 10 years ago. Unlike Alvarez, Benavidez has competed almost exclusively in the super middleweight division since he knocked out Erasmo Mendoza (pro debut) in the first round of Benavidez’s pro debut in August 2013 in Puerto Penasco, Mexico.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.