Easy, money. It's called prize fighting. Imagine SRL coming out of retirement and fighting Hagler? That's big money. I'm sure Graham got a nice little bundle of step aside money. And fighting Benavidez was much more lucrative than fighting any of the other guys at 168. That's why Canelo asked Turki to pay him 150 million to fight Benavidez. Besides, who would have been passed over if Canelo fought DB? Surely, someone not as dangerous or lucrative as DB.
Benavidez was Canelo's mandatory for just a year and was unknown by the general public until a few months into it. By the time he was popular enough to draw enough audience for a match, he didn't waste much time with Canelo's uncertainty and moved up to LHW instead. You use a lot of fancy words to justify Hagler's actions but he did pretty much exactly what Canelo did. They took smarter, less riskier and more profitable matches instead of taking on the REAL challenge ahead.
Hagler would beat the living crap out of Canelo. This thread is actually quite disrespectful to Marvelous Marvin. You assuming the fight goes 15 rounds before Eddy and Chepo Reynoso save Canelo.
Nope! Benavidez was the most lucrative fight that could have been made. Most boxing fans have been wanting that fight for a while. Are you seriously trying to tell me that the Yeldrim fight would have been more lucrative than a fight with Benavidez? I'm not going to put down a fighter when he chases money. Is it at times annoying, yes, would I probably do the same thing, yes. But for you to say that, by fighting Leonard, Hagler did the same thing as Canelo fighting the likes of Smith or Yeldrim, is just wrong. Hagler got his biggest pay day, if I'm not mistaken. Canelo could have gotten double fighting DB instead of those guys. Besides wouldn't want to see Canelo lock horns with Benavidez?
Yıldırım fight only happened because he was being managed by a mob-ish dude with very deep connections in the business that made him the mandatory for WBC title through backdoor politics. And the fight happened 2 years before Benavidez “became” Canelo’s mandatory. I would want nothing more than to see Canelo vs Benavidez but this doesnt change the fact that what he did wasnt that much different than what Hagler did. Benavidez wasn’t in that much of a demand until like a few months before he moved up LHW. During the majority of the time when he was the #1 contender by WBC (which never officially made him the mandatory for some reason) Benavidez didn’t offer more profit to Canelo than his opponents and simply presented a far greater risk.