By Norm Fraueneim –
LAS VEGAS – David Benavidez is ready to move on from years of waiting on Canelo Alvarez, yet he still hasn’t eliminated the chance that one day he might fight the celebrated Mexican.
Just hours before Canelo faced super-middleweight challenger Jaime Munguia Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena, Benavidez said he was poised to go his own way, upscale and away from his frustrating pursuit of Canelo.
“I want to make my own lane at 175 pounds, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do,’’ Benavidez said at a news conference announcing his light-heavyweight date against ex-champ Oleksandr Gvozdyk on a June 15 card featuring Tank Davis-Frank Martin at the MGM Grand. “I’ve done everything I can at 168 pounds.
“The only thing was a fight for the unified title, but Canelo wouldn’t give me the fight.’’
Throughout the days before opening bell for Canelo-Munguia, there were mixed messages from boxing’s pay-per-view star about whether he might agree to fight Benavidez in September.
Yes?
No?
Let’s just say Canelo is a definite maybe.
But the 27-year-old Benavidez can’t wait around. He’s entering his prime. His body is maturing, which inevitably will force him out of the junior-middleweight division. Saturday, Benavidez, a former two-time 168-pound champion, even mentioned cruiserweight.
There are many in the media who think the Phoenix-born fighter will eventually fight at heavyweight.
“If Canelo was there for us in September, yeah, we’d consider it,’’ Benavidez father and trainer Jose told 15 Rounds after the formal part of the news conference. “We could go back down to 168. But whatever Canelo decides, we’ve got to move forward.’’
Against Gvozdyk, the unbeaten Benavidez has a chance to move into position for a 175-pound title. But even that wasn’t as clear Saturday as it had been a few days ago because of a knee injury suffered by Artur Beterbiev.
Beterbiev was scheduled to fight Dmitry Bivol on June 1 in Saudi Arabia. It’s not clear whether another opponent will be found for Bivol or the date with Beterbiev will be postponed to later in the year.
The plan was for the Benavidez-Gvozdyk winner to fight the Beterbiev-Bivol winner for a unified light-heavy title.
“If I can’t be a unified super-middleweight champ, I want to be unified at light-heavy,’’ Benavidez told 15 Rounds. “I want to create my own legacy.
“I just think that Canelo is leaving a great fight, a historical one, on the table.’’
It’s no surprise that the Tank-Martin part of the newser was contentious. Tank tried to slap Martin. He screamed insults at him. It wouldn’t be Tank without trash talk.
“You ain’t nothing, you’re from the suburbs,’’ Tank said to Martin, born in Detroit and now a resident of Indianapolis
Davis, the reigning lightweight champion and a leading pound-for-pound contender, hasn’t fought in more than 12 months, a stretch that included some time behind bars in Baltimore. His last fight was an April, 2023 stoppage of Ryan Garcia, boxing’s undisputed KingChaos. The Ryan reign has become a controversial circus.
“I’m just happy to be back,’’ said Tank, who was nearly an hour late for the news conference. “I’ve been in jail, been on house arrest.
“Things like that.’’
