{"id":563378,"date":"2026-05-03T02:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T02:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/563378\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T02:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T02:48:11","slug":"david-benavidez-reacts-to-canelos-comeback-fight-against-mbilli-and-names-better-choice-opponent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/563378\/","title":{"rendered":"David Benavidez reacts to Canelo’s comeback fight against Mbilli and names ‘better choice’ opponent"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Benavidez<\/a> has shared his reaction to Canelo Alvarez<\/a> taking on Christian Mbilli<\/a>, believing the former undisputed king should be fighting an alternative opponent.<\/p>\n

It was reported on Thursday that the pair have agreed to collide for Mbilli\u2019s WBC super-middleweight strap<\/a> in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on September 12.<\/p>\n

The showdown would present Canelo with an opportunity to reclaim one of his four world titles, which he lost via a unanimous decision against Terence Crawford last September.<\/p>\n

Prior to that, Alvarez had become a two-time undisputed champion at 168lbs but ultimately failed to nullify the speed and technical brilliance of \u2018Bud\u2019.<\/p>\n

Mbilli, meanwhile, was elevated from \u2018interim\u2019 to full WBC champion following Crawford\u2019s retirement, but is perhaps yet to fully establish himself at world level.<\/p>\n

In his last outing, the Frenchman featured on the undercard of Canelo-Crawford and held Lester Martinez to a 10-round draw<\/a>, but has not fought since being upgraded to full champion.<\/p>\n

Regardless of his title, though, Benavidez does not consider Mbilli to be a worthy opponent for Canelo, who he has long accused of ducking him.<\/p>\n

Instead, the WBC light-heavyweight champion has told Fight Hub TV<\/a> that he would much rather see the Mexican face super-middleweight contender Diego Pacheco.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody wants to see that s*** [Mbilli vs Canelo]. I think [it] would have been better if he [was fighting] Diego Pacheco. Diego Pacheco\u2019s a way bigger name than Mbilli.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having previously trained with Pacheco, it is hardly surprising that Benavidez, who bids to become a three-weight world champion this Saturday, has suggested his former stablemate would be a more appropriate dance partner for Canelo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Benavidez has shared his reaction to Canelo Alvarez taking on Christian Mbilli, believing the former undisputed king…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-563378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}