David Benavidez puts Canelo Alvarez fight behind him and moves up to 175 pounds in his bid to become undisputed world champion
David Benavidez has finally moved on from trying to organize a fight with Canelo Alvarez, with 'The Monster' now firmly fixed on settling into the light heavyweight division.
Having been the WBC mandatory challenger for Alvarez's super middleweight title for several years, it appears that the frustration of not being scheduled to fight the undisputed champion has grown too much for Benavidez.
The Mexican has not shared an overwhelming amount of interest in facing his WBC mandatory challenger, and rumors circling around the boxing world are that Alvarez will face Edgar Berlanga next.
The 27-year-old is scheduled to make his light heavyweight debut against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, the former WBC champion at 175 pounds, on June 15.
The first press conference ahead of their clash was held on May 4, where the American discussed his decision to move on from a fight with Alvarez. He said this:
"I did everything I can do at 168 [pounds]. I've been there for ten years, the only other thing I had to achieve was fighting for the unified world titles. And Canelo Alvarez is holding all of them. So he doesn't want to give me the fight."
He continued:
"I've been the [WBC] mandatory for the past three years, I've done everything I could do to get that fight. I still haven't gotten it, so I'm not going to wait around for anybody. I'm gonna go make my own lane at 175 [pounds] and that's exactly what I'm doing."
Watch David Benavidez discuss moving divisions below from 10:35:
Terence Crawford deserves to fight Canelo Alvarez more than David Benavidez, says Shawn Porter
Canelo Alvarez maintained his status as the undisputed super middleweight champion after handing Jaime Munguia the first defeat of his career on May 4.
The Mexican was asked in the ring following the bout if he would be interested in fighting David Benavidez next, arguably the most sought after fight in boxing right now. Alvarez refrained from sharing too many details, and said he would be looking to rest for the time being.
But according to Shawn Porter, one man who deserves to fight Alvarez even more than 'The Monster' is former undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford, who recently moved up to light middleweight
Porter discussed Alvarez's next fight following his victory over Munguia, saying this:
"The two fighters right now who deserve a fight with Canelo Alvarez: Terence Crawford, one, and then David Benavidez, two. Terence has just done it all, he's really earned it."
Watch Shawn Porter's comments below from 1:35: