Despite Differences Over $150M Stipulation, Canelo Alvarez & David Benavidez Agree on One Thing

From the outside looking in, boxing may seem like a sport with money-hungry fighters, vying to secure the biggest paychecks possible, do hell with what happens to the sport. And on many levels, that’s true. However, Canelo Alvarez and David Benavidez claim that’s not the case. The duo seem to hate each other’s guts, and for good reason.

Before ‘The Mexican Monster’ moved to the light heavyweight division, he was the ‘Interim’ WBC super middleweight champion. This meant he was the mandatory contender for Canelo Alvarez, as he held hopes to land a fight against him for more than year. However, a fight never really materialized and WBC did nothing to make it happen either. 

This has led to a lot of trash talk between the fighters through interviews over the last few years. Despite their differences, they seem to have one opinion in common—they value the sport more than money. Recently, Canelo appeared in an interview with The Ring Magazine where he revealed that he puts the sport first and shares the same advice with young boxers. 

“I always say to the young fighters, ‘Hey don’t look [at] boxing just for the money. The money comes. Do your thing, do good and with discipline with love with everything and the money is going to come,’” said the Mexican superstar. Meanwhile, Benavidez appeared in an interview with ‘All The Smoke,’ where he had a similar feeling about boxing. 

“The only reason I did that is because I’m a fan of boxing,” Benavidez said when asked about why agreed to fight on the undercard of Gervonta Davis vs. Frank Martin. “I know how much it means to get two big fighters on one card… I didn’t really care about… being the co-main event or whatever, I just thought that… it would be a dope night for the fans.”

Despite all the big talk, one thing to note is that last year Canelo Alvarez demanded a staggering $150 – $200 million to fight David Benavidez. To top it off, Canelo fights opponents who are clearly not on his level to collect paychecks. Yes, he seems to have agreed to fight Terence Crawford, but there’s an argument to be made that Crawford would be outmatched against him.

Regardless, Benavidez recently made a startling revelation about an offer made to Canelo for their fight.

David Benavidez reveals $70 million offer Canelo Alvarez used to bait him

David Benavidez has opened up about his failed negotiations with Canelo Alvarez, revealing that Al Haymon’s PBC offered Canelo $70 million to fight him in May 2024. However, Alvarez instead chose to face Jaime Munguia. Speaking on All the Smoke, Benavidez claimed he was even willing to accept a flat $5 million purse with no pay-per-view earnings, yet the fight never materialized.

“They offered him $70 million to fight me, that is before pay-per-view,” Benavidez said. “You guys can call Luis de Cubas, Al Haymon, and ask them that.” According to Benavidez, Canelo’s team expected him to reject the offer, but he called their bluff. 

“They had offered me $5m and I said ‘Cool.’ Sampson Lewkowicz called us and said before the Jaime Munguia fight, ‘Hey, would you be willing to fight for a flat fee of $5m? You’re not getting any pay-per-view, none of that,’ and I said ‘Yes.’ We had agreed, we said yes and then we never heard back,” he added. 

That said, David Benavidez clearly has a moral high ground over Canelo Alvarez. Even though both fighters preach the same principle, it appears only one of them follows it. What do you think about their statements?