Caleb Plant has already surpassed Andre Ward and Benavidez beat him so you just need to put 2 and 2 together
Since the questions asks Can and not Will I voted yes. The key is Benavidez' youth. He is only 26 years old and has plenty of time to do great things. This being said, he won't surpass Ward at 168. My guess is that Benavidez will move up to 175 before too long whether or not he beats Alvarez.
Benevidez will take him but they'll better not let Tony Weekes ref the fight Weekes thinks a fighters navel is level with his testes. That was proven in Ward v Kovalev 2 .Bet Rougarou will have to go to Oakland to get the fight too Old Dre aint the bravest is he lol
He is 1 win away if he is given his chance. If he beats Canelo he will be the greatest ever 168 pounder imo. 3 time WC including (youngest ever 168 champ) plus undisputed by defeating the greatest fighter of his generation. All by age 27.
I think, in ability/achievement - yes for sure. As for legacy - hard to say. My opinion is that had Ward been a euro fighter, he wouldn’t be ranked anywhere near as highly as he is courtesy of the US boxing press being desperate to anoint a new p4p king. And as the US boxing press goes, so does most of the rest of the world usually. I think Benavidez could certainly be the better fighter, but the Ward cult casts a long shadow over boxing, so it’s hard to say whether Benavidez will be ranked above him when all is said and done.
Benavidez hasn’t fought one single opponent his size. Yes Ward robbed Kov 1 and nutshotted him to pieces in Kov 2 but at least he add the decency to not be a coward and fight small guys like Benavidez is doing. Why is everyone up Benavidez’ ass now after he beat a heavily inactive (one fight against a bum in two years) Andrade who also moved up in weight and is chinny (wobbled by Basic Williams on several occasions)? He has proved next to nothing.
At present he's way behind, Ward had wins over, Mikkel Kessler, Sake Bika, Arthur Abraham, Carl Forch, Chad Dawson, Sullivan Barrera, and 2 over Kovalev . Benevidez has beaten Dirrell, Lemieux, Plant, and Andrade as his best wins. If he moves up and dominates the 175 pound division for a few years he might but as of now,,,a Big No.,,,,,and if you posed the question of who'd win between the 2 I'd take Ward...as of now.
Plant wasn't small. He's just fighting who's in front of em. I haven't seen Benavidez duck anyone yet
