Super middleweight David Benavidez finished strong and defeated Caleb Plant via a dominant 12-round unanimous decision. Now Benavidez along with his team have switched their focus to the cash cow of the sport - Canelo Alvarez.
The super middleweight division now has a clear one and two in the division, as Canelo Alvarez holds all the belts, and Benavidez beat arguably the best challenger at this moment to claim his spot as the second-best behind the undisputed world champion, Alvarez, who stands atop the division. Canelo Alvarez is currently scheduled to fight on May 6th in Mexico, on DAZN pay-per-view, next.
“I want to tell everyone that I have a lot of respect for Canelo Alvarez, but he needs to give me that shot now.” Benavidez said after the fight, “That’s what everyone wants to see, me versus Canelo. I don’t think he’s trying to avoid me. He has a lot of options, but now the fans will be calling for this fight. The legends will be calling for this fight, and so, let’s make it happen.”
Canelo Alvarez is one of, if not the best Mexican fighter of all time, and Benavidez is a Mexican-American fighter campaigning in the same division. Though Canelo has stated that he doesn’t want to fight Mexican fighters, even though Canelo fought Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., in the past, it is clear the public is now very interested in seeing a bout between the two most dominant forces in the super middleweight division.
As for Benavidez’s performance, the fighter was satisfied, but also a bit hard on himself as he clearly wanted to stop Caleb Plant. When asked why he felt he was unable to get the stoppage, Benavidez made it clear he felt it was the third man in the ring - the referee.
“I don’t want to call Kenny Bayless out, but he didn’t call Caleb [Plant] out on any of his clinches for the whole fight,” said Benavidez on why he wasn’t able to get the stoppage. “I think if Kenny Bayless had have said something about the clinches, maybe it would’ve stopped Caleb [Plant] from trying to clinch, and I would clip him. I was hurting him a lot of times, busted his eye open, hurt him to the body, [but] I can still get better.”