{"id":613718,"date":"2026-05-31T13:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T13:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/613718\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T13:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T13:28:08","slug":"canelo-finally-reveals-why-he-never-agreed-to-fight-david-benavidez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/613718\/","title":{"rendered":"Canelo finally reveals why he never agreed to fight David Benavidez"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years, fans have criticised Canelo Alvarez<\/a> for not facing former super-middleweight rival David Benavidez<\/a>, and now Alvarez has revealed why the fight never took place.<\/p>\n

Canelo became the super-middleweight division\u2019s first undisputed champion back in 2021, dethroning each of Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant within 12 months in one of modern boxing\u2019s most impressive runs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After an unsuccessful challenge for Dmitry Bivol\u2019s light-heavyweight crown, Alvarez returned to 168lbs and defended the belt against Gennadiy Golovkin, John Ryder and Jermell Charlo \u2013 ignoring a fight with the physically imposing Benavidez, who was his WBC mandatory challenger.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Inside The Ring Show<\/a>, Canelo said that his only targets at that stage were fellow world champions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were both at 168, I fought every champion in that division. Why [did] he never fight those champions? If he was a champion at that point, I\u2019d fight him. My goal was being undisputed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now it\u2019s just impossible. He can [go] fight with heavyweights, do you know what I mean.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Benavidez held the WBC super-middleweight belt in 2020, but he was stripped after missing weight ahead of his fight with Roamer Alexis Angulo<\/a>, with the vacant title instead being added to Canelo\u2019s clash with Smith four months later.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Benavidez moved up in the pound-for-pound rankings by knocking out Gilberto Ramirez to become a three-division champion and a new top dog on the cruiserweight scene. He may drop back down to light-heavyweight next, but has also touted a heavyweight run in the future. The 29-year-old\u2019s days at super-middleweight are well and truly over, meaning the Canelo fight is as unlikely as ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years, fans have criticised Canelo Alvarez for not facing former super-middleweight rival David Benavidez, and now Alvarez…\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-613718","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\/613718","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=613718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613718\/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=613718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}