Canelo Alvarez continues to reign as the undefeated Super Middleweight monarch, but the Mexican boxing maestro will soon have to put his 168-pound belts at stake once more against David Benavidez.
And Mauricio Sulaiman, President of the World Boxing Council (WBC), has set the deadline for the title fight.
Mauricio Sulaiman wants Canelo Alvarez vs. David Benavidez done by March 2024
A former WBC super middleweight champ and the current interim champion of the council, David Benavidez, has been longing for a shot at Canelo for quite some time, but there has been little interest on the Mexican champion’s part.
While Canelo continued his reign as the divisional champ, defeating the likes of Gennadiy Golovkin, John Ryder, and Jermell Charlo as the WBC, WBA, WBO, and IBF champ, many believe that the undefeated 168-pounder in Benavidez can dethrone him.
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Although Canelo had been little keen to fight him in the past, Benavidez has now solidified his position as the next contender for the undisputed belts, and Mauricio Sulaiman has announced a deadline of March next year so that the two can finalize their contract.
“In March 2024 is the deadline of Benavidez, no type of injustice has been committed before,” Sulaiman recently told ProBox TV. “Benavídez decides to fight Demetrius Andrade and he is told that he will be ratified as the official challenger, he wins it, shows that he has the merits and is the official challenger for Canelo.”
“From now until May there are six months left, so we are in the process, the parties are talking, but definitely Benavidez is an official challenger and the Council is clear about it in that sense and he will lead the process so that the fight takes place,” the WBC prez added.
David Benavidez’s rise to becoming the undisputed title challenger
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While his callouts to Canelo had been counterproductive, Benavidez continued to make an impact in the squared circle. After winning the vacant interim WBC belt against David Lemieux in May last year, “El Bandera Roja” made two back to back title defenses this year, against Caleb Plant in March and then against Demetrius Andrade in November.
Do you think David Benavidez will finally be able to dethrone Canelo Alvarez? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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