Here are the options: 1. David Benavidez - challenged Canelo for a long time and is the preferred fight for the fans. Canelo will duck. 2. David Morrell - slick Cuban who is a nightmare matchup for Canelo. Canelo will duck. 3. Christian Mbilli - solid record with ko power, but doesn't fit the demographic of fighting Canelo prefers. Canelo will duck. 4. Caleb Plant - remains ranked but getting ktfo by Canelo won't sit well with the casuals. An option to avoid others. 5. Jaime Munguia - the most obvious and easy fight. Possesses no threat to Canelo. Probable. 6. Terence Crawford - has no fight and is coming up from 147 so is unlikely to have the power to worry Canelo, but there is a chance he can put on a boxing clinic, so much so that he won't be an option. Option to avoid other threats, but potentially risky. 7. Jermall Charlo - took a very long break and didn't look sharp in his recent fight. A good option with little risk. 8. Dmitry Bivol - a chance for redemption, only needs to win 3 rounds to get a decision but if he loses, can say he foughtthe best. Can drop the belt to avoid Beterbiev, now is the best chance before Beterbiev gets all the belts. A good option for both fighters to duck their respective threats. Unless he is going to fight Ryder again or an outlier like Erik Bazinyan, Canelo is going to go for Munguia, who is likely to get a solid gift against Ryder to allow the Canelo fight to happen. As I've posted before, he will continue to avoid anyone remotely dangerous, hoping they will fight and destroy each other first. Bivol could be his fallback if Munguia galls through, or even Plant, who is still ranked, but a very bad look. Jermall is another solid low risk option who proves that he can face all types of fighters.
Bivol has already signed a contract to fight Beterbiev so clearly has no intention of ducking him. If Beterbiev also signs, Bivol won't be available for Canelo's next fight. So that's perhaps the most unlikely option. It's a testament to the moronic nature of many on this board that Canelo is constantly being accused of ducking despite facing far more top fighters than any other active fighter, but I do think he should have signed with Benavidez already. It's not a good look that it is dragging out. Think he is waiting to see what happens between Mungia and Ryder, but unless Mungia looks spectacular in that one he's a poor option.
Who cares. He'll get gifted the decision like he did twice vs GGG anyway. The dude's lost 4 times all up. Overrated.
Yeah agree, if Munguia gets him out of there early or he's quite dominant and is ready to go again in May, we'll probably get Canelo-Munguia then. If Munguia isn't viable, he might just wait until September and fight Benavidez then?
Hopefully we get Benavidez already in May, but I'd settle for September. It's a fight that needs to happen, though. Would be quite a year for boxing if that happens plus undisputed showdowns at HW and LHW.
Although Benavidez would be the ONE. It is pretty obvious Canelo probably doesn't fancy it. I think Canelo picks Munguia if he comes out of the Ryder fight unscathed which isn't a sure thing. And yeah I'd agree that Canelo would make easy work of Munguia and pretty much bully him all fight, unlike Benavidez. If Munguia is injured, not ready or simply loses, then I'd expect JermAll Charlo (undefeated one) to be next in line, which would be a better fight than Munguia IMO but Canelo would still make pretty easy work of him. Morrell and Mbilli haven't really done enough IMO. They need to fight each other or fight a Plant/Andrade like fighter, keep winning, keep being active, prove they deserve the Canelo fight. Crawford - WW to SM is a hell of a leap. It would make sense for Crawford to beat someone like Benavidez to prove he is dangerous enough to fight at SM as it just is such a jump, and it gives Canelo's detractors something to cry about if Crawford goes straight into Canelo without actually proving he even is a threat at SM. If one can dream - if Beterbiev beats Bivol, I think him V Canelo/Benavidez winner would be f*****g incredible.
Benavidez is the number one challenge and has been calling him out for years. Why would he fight Munguia except to duck?
A fight with Janibek could be interesting? Does anyone think he gives Canelo a tougher nights work than Munguia?
I hope - Beterbiev. Let's see Canelo get knocked out for the first time in his career. Canelo had two "outings" at LHW; Kovalev and Bivol. The third outing could be fatal, and who wouldn't like to watch that fight?
No ****ing way will Canelo and Al Haymon deal with De La Hoya. It´s going to be either Jermall or Bud. Then Benavidez in September. Adames is a possibility. If they can sell 700k vs Jermell, then a fight with Adames will be worth it(not that it would sell 700k).
Some people will always hate on Canelo. They can’t criticize him being inactive so they’ll try to pick apart his resume even though it’s still better than what 99% of the other boxers out there got.
