{"id":625264,"date":"2026-06-07T01:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T01:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/625264\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T01:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T01:39:10","slug":"david-benavidezs-father-and-trainer-predicts-canelo-vs-mbilli-hes-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/625264\/","title":{"rendered":"David Benavidez&#8217;s father and trainer predicts Canelo vs Mbilli: &#8220;He&#8217;s done&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jose Benavidez Sr has given a damning assessment of Canelo Alvarez\u2019s future in the sport, believing WBC champion Christian Mbilli could send him into retirement.<\/p>\n<p>The pair will square off for Mbilli\u2019s world super-middleweight title on September 12, offering Canelo the chance to reclaim one of his belts in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p>It was a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.co.uk\/boxing\/story\/_\/id\/46224012\/canelo-alvarez-terence-crawford-live-updates-boxing-results-round-round-analysis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">unanimous decision victory for Terence Crawford<\/a> that relieved Alvarez of his undisputed crown last September, with the Mexican subsequently undergoing elbow surgery.<\/p>\n<p>At this stage, many suspect that the 35-year-old is significantly past his best, perhaps only one or two fights away from calling time on his decorated career.<\/p>\n<p>Most, however, would still consider him a clear favourite against Mbilli, who was elevated from \u2018interim\u2019 to full WBC champion following Crawford\u2019s retirement last year.<\/p>\n<p>The Frenchman had retained his \u2018interim\u2019 title with a <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/christian-mbilli-retains-wbc-interim-title-with-draw-against-lester-martinez\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">10-round draw against Lester Martinez<\/a>, featuring on the undercard of Canelo-Crawford in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p>Canelo, meanwhile, has long been competing at the top level while, to some extent, being accused of ducking three-weight world champion David Benavidez.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with <a href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/shorts\/tGUag8URrXQ?si=wAtOzY4gX7uiXNL8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fight Hub TV<\/a>, Benavidez\u2019s father and trainer, Jose, shared his thoughts on the four-division world champion\u2019s upcoming assignment against Mbilli.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think his era is done \u2013 reflexes, speed, power [and his] legs are not there, so we see Canelo declining little by little.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt could be another loss for him [against Mbilli]. Mbilli\u2019s a little bit fresher, but I don\u2019t think he\u2019s an elite fighter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the end of the day, they\u2019re trying to put [Canelo in with] fighters he can beat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While giving Mbilli some semblance of a chance, it seems Benavidez is more convinced that the 31-year-old has been carefully selected as a beatable opponent for Canelo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jose Benavidez Sr has given a damning assessment of Canelo Alvarez\u2019s future in the sport, believing WBC champion&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-625264","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\/625264","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=625264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}