Canelo Alvarez, the undisputed king of super middleweight, has thrown a wrench into the boxing world. David Benavidez, the obligatory challenger, is fuming after Alvarez demanded a whopping $150-$200 million for their potential fight. This astronomical price tag has many scratching their heads.
Alvarez also justified his demand by pointing to his illustrious career. He’s conquered champions and unified divisions. At the same time, he’s also mentioned that he’s yet to receive such an offer from Benavidez’s team. Now, well-known boxing trainer Andre Rozier has dissected the infamous statements of Alvarez and approached them from different perspectives.
Andre Rozier analyzes the hefty demand for Canelo Alvarez
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In a conversation with FightHype, Andre Rozier didn’t support the undisputed champion instantly, and neither did he criticize him for putting up such an amount. He kept his answer neutral and tried to see both sides of the coin. He said, “Well basically, it’s one of two things. You can look at it either or one way, is like hey it’s a big fight, I want big money for it. The other way is like if I put a number out there that’s astronomical, it ain’t going to happen anyway.”
But then again, he was surprised to hear that Alvarez was trying to duck David Benavidez. Since Alvarez has always been able to overcome tough opponents and it hasn’t been a big deal for him yet. Rozier mentioned, “So I mean I don’t know about why Canelo doesn’t want to fight David, other than the fact that he blows up to be a cruiserweight come fight time, and it’s going to be a tough fight. But he’s won tough fights so I’m not sure.”
He mentioned that he’d love to see this fight happen one day, however, it’s all up to Canelo Alvarez as of now. On the other hand, Benavidez seemed to be moving on to fight Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the time being. Simultaneously, he’s also looking to land a grand fight in Saudi Arabia.
HE Turki Alalshikh wants to conduct the David Benavidez fight next
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David Benavidez, the mandatory challenger fuming after Canelo Alvarez’s sky-high price tag, might be getting his Saudi Arabian fight after all. But there’s a twist. It won’t be against Canelo. Benavidez has declared in his Instagram Post, that he doesn’t need the money, and any fight earnings would go to charity if he loses. This caught the attention of HE Turki Alalshikh.
So, Alalshikh has decided to finalize a potential clash with the winner of the upcoming Dmitry Bivol vs. Artur Beterbiev light heavyweight showdown. This alternative path seems to have piqued the interest of the powerful figure in Saudi Arabian entertainment. More so because Benavidez is already making a jump in the weight class. Is this the consolation prize Benavidez craved? Not quite. But it does offer a chance to prove himself on a big stage, potentially setting up a future mega-fight with Alvarez.
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Regardless, that would only happen if Canelo ever comes down from his financial mountain. Now, it’s to be seen if ‘Cinnamon’ will give the fans what they want or if he’ll keep avoiding David Benavidez. What are your thoughts on this? Tell us in the comments section.