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By Dan Ambrose: Eddie Hearn says David Benavidez will need to start fighting good opposition if he wants to get a shot at the famous Canelo Alvarez.
Benavidez has repeatedly complained about his inability to get fights with Caleb Plant and Jermall Charlo to put more pressure on the undefeated middleweight champion Canelo to fight him.
Benavidez doesn’t have a different look to him like Canelo did with red hair, which arguably helped his popularity early in his career.
This, in turn, made it easier for Canelo to fight against elite fighters at the beginning of his career, such as Shane Mosley, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Miguel Cotto and Amir Khan.
It is not enough that the unbeaten former two-time WBC super middleweight champion Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) is Canelo’s opponent for the World Boxing Council 168-lb title and that he is also the interim champ for that belt. Benavidez also needs to fight better opposition.
“Benavidez decided that the fight with Uzcategui was a good fight, a strong fight, but come on. You are screaming for a fight with Canelo; you have to make strong statements,” Eddie Hearn told DAZN Boxing about what David Benavidez has to do to get a fight with Canelo Alvarez.
In other sports, if a team is able to play another team in the playoffs or part of their schedule, the games go on. In boxing, it’s different.
Even if a fighter like Benavidez gets a title shot against Canelo, it doesn’t mean he will fight.
As you can see with Hearn, Benavidez still has to prove himself by doing the impossible by forcing big fighters who don’t want to face him whether they want to or not.
Hearn was not happy with Benavidez’s selection for his fight against former IBF 168-lb champion Jose Uzcategui in January. Uzcategui (32-4, 27 KOs) has lost two of his last six fights, with losses to Caleb Plant and Lionell Thompson.
“Canelo feels that the opponent should deserve this opportunity. He has to force the fight,” continued Hearn.
Benavidez “deserves” to fight Canelo because he is his WBC opponent. If that’s not worthy of a title, then I don’t know what is. Was Avni Yildirim is he more deserving of a title shot than the undefeated Benavidez?
If Canelo won’t defend his title against his mandatory challenger, in this case, Benavidez, then the WBC will have to strip him of his belt.
“Canelo has the best record in boxing, and I don’t understand why people question him. When you have someone like Canelo, who has achieved everything he wants, where is the reason to fight someone like Benavidez? He is a hero though [Jose] Uzcategui? It’s a shame,” Hearn said.
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