Canelo has poured cold water on the idea of facing David Benavidez anytime in the near future. He is demanding $150–200 million to accept that fight.
When you make a demand that ridiculous it is obvious you don’t want to make the fight. PBC and DAZN have recently rejected Canelo’s proposed fights against Charlo and Berlanga, which is an indication of his declining marketability. Pricing himself out is nothing more than an admission of being scared to lose. Canelo vs. Benavidez would be a huge deal but it doesn’t have the historic significance of an undisputed heavyweight fight, which is the only thing that can come close to being worth those kinds of purses.
Quote from: https://www.boxingscene.com/canelo-alvarez-david-benavidez-offers-nothing-more-extra-25-pounds--182264
When Alvarez, 33, was asked if Benavidez was the next biggest fight that could be made, he said, "Maybe. Who knows? But he brings nothing to the table for me. He just brings 25 extra pounds on the night of the fight. That’s it. He has nothing to offer me, anything. I’m the one … If a promoter who I work with offers $150 to $200 million, then I'll fight tomorrow. That's the only reason I'll fight with him.”
When you make a demand that ridiculous it is obvious you don’t want to make the fight. PBC and DAZN have recently rejected Canelo’s proposed fights against Charlo and Berlanga, which is an indication of his declining marketability. Pricing himself out is nothing more than an admission of being scared to lose. Canelo vs. Benavidez would be a huge deal but it doesn’t have the historic significance of an undisputed heavyweight fight, which is the only thing that can come close to being worth those kinds of purses.
So we must say that he is clearly ducking Benavidez, maybe he thinks that he can really lose to David as he is young, ambitious and has all the physical advantage over him. It's just not good to see Canelo shifting, taking easy fight for millions, we thought that him being a Mexican and fighting with pride and cementing his legacy.
Now he is out there just for money and specially after that Bivol lost, he does not want to take risk anymore and get another L in his record. Maybe a promoter is going to work and pay him that kind of money, specially the oil money from Saudis, but it's obvious now that he is avoiding Benavidez like a plague.
And these ducking will continue along with a lot of fighters especially on the popular ones. The sport changed a lot when Mayweather showed the world that you can earn big money even if they choose the less dangerous opponents. Even Benavidez will also duck when he's got more options.
The issue of ducking and these politics in boxing can only be addressed if the 4 sanctioning bodies will be true to their rules and regulations. The WBA and the WBC are already notorious when it comes to corruption. The IBF once known as the strictest of them also changed. I pick the WBO as the best of the these sanctioning bodies at the moment.
It's the people behind these organizations that really hurt, or at least boxing fans was not able to see the fights that we wanted to see because this bodies outright refusing to make their champions fight their mandatories.
So it's going to be a vicious cycle for this boxers, unless the two really settled their differences, or one party willing to give the other one some advantage. Like in the Ryan Garcia vs Tank Davis fight wherein there is a clause about rehyrdation which is obviously not fair for Ryan. But since he really wanted that fight and so they give in the demand and he eventually lost the fight.
