Turki Alalshikh: "Canelo only picks easy fights"

There's no doubt that Canelo ducked Benavidez. He didn't want that smoke, for whatever reason. Probably because of Benavidez's size and the fact that he would outweigh him significantly on the night. That's no excuse though. There's been plenty of times that Canelo outweighed his opponent on the night. I think it's Benavidez height and reach, but that also presents a big target for Canelo to unload to the body.

The fact of the matter is that Canelo ducked Benavidez, there's no way around that and as a Canelo fan I'm disappointed. Him asking for $150 or $200 million is ridiculous. He priced himself out and no one realistically is gonna pay that. Canelo comes off as greedy and while I don't think he's actually scared of fighting anyone, it's not unreasonable for haters to say he's scared of Benavidez.

That said, Benavidez had an opportunity to force the fight, but he rejected becoming the mandatory. He moved up to 175 and has made it clear that he's staying there. This proves that Benavidez really belongs at 175 and suggests that he's been killing himself to make 168. So in a way, even though Canelo clearly ducked the dude, at the same time Benavidez no longer belongs at 168 and Benavidez refused to enforce the mandatory, which he could have, had he actually been fighting at his ideal weight at 168.

So while we can criticize Canelo for clearly ducking Benavidez, it is fair to point out that Benavidez has outgrown the weight class and belongs at 175. The problem with this is that had the fight happened and had Canelo won, Benavidez would immediately declare he was drained and was moving up to 175 and fans would use it to discredit Canelo beating him saying that the only reason why Benavidez lost was because it was at 168. So essentially even had Canelo took the fight he likely wouldn't get full credit anyway. Now if Benavidez goes on to baet Bivol or Beterbiev, I wouldn't rule out Canelo moving up to challenge him, and I think in that scenario Benavidez is going to be much harder for Canelo to beat at 175. Benavidez is only going to get better, and one would think that Canelo is only going to decline. And Canelo at 175 has had major stamina problems which means that it's hard to see how he outpoints Benavidez at that weight. So in my view it was beneficial for Canelo to fight Benavidez at 168 while he could, where he would do better against a drained Benavidez barely able to make 168. Now that he's refused to fight him, it's a bad look for Canelo, and for a guy who's been carrying the sport for a long time, it's disappointing. I thought it would have been a great fight at 168, it's too bad it couldn't happen, but we'll see maybe it still happens down the road at 175 but I don't like Canelo's chances at that weight.

 

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Kovalev was shot to pieces, so the only fighter in that list comparable to a Benavidez, meaning dangerous 'killer' would be GGG, who was 35 and much smaller than Benavidez. Considering how Canelo has avoided David despite being offered more money than anyone on that list, its safe to say he views Benavidez as more dangerous than all of them.