Who is David Benavidez fighting next? WBA president suggests mandatory contendership bout for Canelo Alvarez
Sadly, David Benavidez might not be facing Canelo Alvarez in his next fight.
'The Mexican Monster' returned over the weekend to face Caleb Plant on Showtime pay-per-view. While the two men had bad blood prior to the bout, they were also fighting for a lot more than just pride.
Prior to the matchup, the WBC stated that the winner of the matchup would become the mandatory challenger for Canelo Alvarez. Granted, Benavidez has been mandatory challenger for a while now, but it seemed the last hurdle he had to clear was 'Sweet Hands'. On Saturday night, he did exactly that.
Plant had his fair share of early success but wound up getting battered by Benavidez over the second half of the contest. After 12 rounds of action, 'The Mexican Monster' picked up the victory by unanimous decision. With that, he was officially the mandatory challenger for Canelo Alvarez's WBC super-middleweight title.
The issue is, the super-middleweight champion has three other titles as well. Sadly, they don't appear to be on the same page. As first reported by Michael Benson of TalkSport, WBA president Gilberto Mendoza believes David Benavidez should face David Morrell next.
If Benavidez can get past that fight, he will be able to face Alvarez.
See Benson's tweet about Benavidez vs. Morrell below:
David Benavidez next fight: 'The Mexican Monster' calls out Canelo Alvarez
Despite the speculations of fighting David Morrell, David Benavidez has his eyes set on Canelo Alvarez.
The two super middleweights have been in talks to fight for over a year now, with many fans stating that 'The Mexican Monster' is the champion's biggest threat. Mike Tyson even predicted that Benavidez would beat Alvarez if they fought.
However, the fight hasn't happened as of now. The Mexican superstar has stated that Benavidez needs a big win in order to get a title shot. Well, he did exactly that by dominating Caleb Plant over the weekend in Las Vegas.
David Benavidez then headed to the post-fight press conference where he called out Canelo Alvarez. He stated:
"Canelo Alvarez needs these fights, a big fighter like me... I want to prove myself. Canelo's proven himself, but I feel like he has to give me an opportunity too. It's not like I'm begging for something, I've been mandatory for the last two fights... The only fight people want to see at super middleweight is me vs. Canelo, so let's give it to them."