Did Canelo Purposely Avoid David Benavidez Because He Knows He’s On The Decline?

On a historic night of championship boxing in front of a sold-out crowd at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Terence “Bud” Crawford gave Canelo Alvarez a masterclass in the art of boxing, and now we can see why Canelo Alvarez ducked David Benavidez.

Throughout the course of the 12-round undisputed Canelo vs Crawford contest, the challenger, Terence Crawford, was dominant. Crawford was defensively responsible, and his boxing was flawless. When he decided to stand in the pocket, Crawford won the majority of the exchanges.

Back in July 2023, Terence Crawford stopped Errol Spence Jr in the ninth round and became a two-weight undisputed world champion. Two years later, Crawford moved up three divisions to defeat Canelo Alvarez and become a three-division undisputed world champion.

After getting dominated for the majority of the 12 rounds, fans and boxing pundits are wondering what’s next for Canelo Alvarez. We may not know what the future holds, but after witnessing what happened on the night of September 13th, we saw why Canelo ducked David Benavidez.

Back in May 2022, former two-time WBC super-middleweight world champion David Benavidez stopped David Lemieux in the 3rd round and won the WBC interim title. With the victory, David Benavidez became Canelo’s mandatory challenger.

Despite Benavidez’s status, Canelo refused to step up to the challenge. After his trilogy fight with GGG, Canelo Alvarez was asked about fighting the former two-time WBC world champion David Benavidez, and Alvarez responded by stating that David Benavidez hasn’t accomplished anything.

After making that statement, Canelo agreed to fight John Ryder, a man who at the time had five losses, and he never won a world title. Benavidez continued to pursue a bout with Canelo, and WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman stepped in and stated Benavidez would become Canelo’s mandatory if he beats Caleb Plant.

Benavidez defeated Plant via unanimous decision, but Sulaiman never ordered the Canelo fight. Sulaiman decided to put Benavidez in a second eliminator bout, and Benavidez stopped Demetrius Andrade in the 6th round, but once again, Mauricio Sulaiman didn’t order the fight versus Canelo.

Instead of fighting David Benavidez, who was his mandatory defense, Canelo Alvarez decided to take the softer touch, as he fought Jaime Munguia and Edgar Berlanga. At this point, it became obvious that Canelo Alvarez was ducking David Benavidez every day of the week, and twice on Sundays.

Since then, David Benavidez has become a world champion at 175, and Canelo Alvarez just lost to a man who came up three weight classes. Now we understand why Canelo Alvarez avoided the fight with David Benavidez.

Is it possible that the 35-year-old Alvarez is on the decline?  Alvarez defeated Jaime Munguia by unanimous decision, but seven months later, Munguia was knocked out by an unknown boxer, Bruno Surace. In September 2024, Canelo beat Edgar Berlanga via unanimous decision, but nine months later, Berlanga was stopped by Hamzah Sheeraz.

Canelo Alvarez purposely stayed away from David Benavidez because he didn’t want to deal with that set of problems. David Benavidez has the size advantage, his hand speed is elite, and his work rate is non-stop.

For the past three years, fight fans and boxing pundits have been anxious to see a Canelo vs Benavidez clash. At the moment, the only way this fight would make sense is if Canelo moved up to challenge Benavidez for his WBC light-heavyweight world title.

The way the world is spinning, Cinco de Mayo will be here in the blink of an eye, and it would be the perfect time to finally have the Canelo vs Benavidez clash. We all know that David Benavidez would welcome the matchup, but the question is, does Canelo want to finally get rid of the duck speculation by agreeing to fight The Mexican Monster?