Canelo Alvarez has not yet committed to a fight with David Benavidez following his victory over Jaime Munguia. The Mexican boxer gave Munguia a tough time on Saturday night, despite Munguia’s strong start in the first three rounds.
Alvarez chose his moments wisely, countering the 27 year old’s aggression by carefully selecting his shots. This strategy paid off in the fourth round when a right uppercut sent Munguia to the floor. In the sixth round, Munguia stumbled as Alvarez jabbed, and although the fight went the distance, the judges overwhelmingly sided with the multi-weight world champion.
A high-profile fight with Benavidez could be next for Alvarez, but the 33 year old is hesitant to commit. “I don’t know right now. I’m going to rest, I’m going to enjoy my family,” said Alvarez.
“But if the money is right, I can fight right now. I don’t give a s***. I fought with everybody they said I’m not going to fight, I fought all of them. So right now, I can do whatever I want. And I’m Mexican.”
Benavidez, however, believes that Alvarez is avoiding the fight. The three-time WBC super middleweight champion stated: “He’s running out of excuses, he says the only thing I bring is 25 pounds more and that I’m not worth anything, but he’s asking for 200 million dollars and now he wants to fight me the same night? That’s stupid, just tell people you don’t want to fight me. To me, it looks like he was afraid.”
“I have always given credit to Canelo, I think he is a very good fighter, a legend too, but I did my job, I have three years being the WBC mandatory (challenger) and he doesn’t want to give me the fight,” Benavidez added. “I will knock him out. It’s going to be a tough fight, but I believe 100% in what I can do and I’ll knock him out.”
Fans are also getting frustrated, according to Benavidez, it’s the biggest fight on the table for Canelo. “The fans now are getting upset because this is the biggest fight on the table,” he continued. “And why are we going to leave it on the table for no reason? This is a fight that has to happen.
“And I’m going to keep putting these types of performances on where people are going to want to see it. The demand of this fight is really high. It’s bad blood. I don’t like him. He doesn’t like me.”