David Benavidez decided to break from the waiting game Tuesday, informing the World Boxing Council that he will surrender his super middleweight mandatory status to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and remain the light heavyweight title mandatory.
As Alvarez moves toward a Sept. 14 fight against Edgar Berlanga, Benavidez promoter Sampson Lewkowicz told BoxingScene on Tuesday that Benavidez has received the assurance of WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman that he will face the winner of the Oct. 12 undisputed light heavyweight title fight between three-belt champion Artur Beterbiev and his fellow unbeaten Russian, WBA titleholder Dmitry Bivol.
Lewkowicz said Benavidez will take a December fight against a non-champion.
Benavidez then plans to take over the Cinco de Mayo weekend card that Alvarez has owned for years by staging his undisputed 175-pound title fight on that meaningful boxing weekend in Las Vegas.
That title-fight guarantee is something Sulaiman could not do for Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) against Mexico’s undisputed super middleweight champion Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KOs).
Four-division champion Alvarez, 34, said he wouldn’t fight Benavidez, 27, for less than $150 million, and Sulaiman declined to strip the mega-earning Alvarez of his belt.
This, despite the Phoenix fighter’s two-year-plus wait as No. 1 WBC contender, along with his standing as a former titlist in the division, whose recent triumphs over ex-middleweight titleholder Demetrius Andrade and ex-light-heavyweight belt holder Oleksandr Gvozdyk in June affirmed his qualifications.
“This was the decision of [Benavidez],” Lewkowicz said. “He doesn’t want to lose any more time waiting for Canelo. He wants to create his own legacy.
“He will go down his own path without Canelo.”
Benavidez suffered a hand injury during the Gvozdyk bout and couldn’t record a knockout, but he projects well to the next division and now possesses a vested interest in the Oct. 12 Bivol-Beterbiev bout in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Benavidez has spoken of the possibility of being able to add weight as his career advances, speculating that he believes he’ll be capable of becoming a heavyweight by his mid-30s.
Winning a title there would definitely qualify as charting his own course.
By Lance Pugmire