Benavidez Sr: “Canelo is at the end of his career”
David Benavidez’s father said that the Mexican star is on the decline and that the fact of fighting at a young age is taking its toll.
Is Saúl Álvarez past his prime? It’s a difficult question to answer as at 32 he’s still in good condition to keep making history, but, at the same time, his one-sided defeat to Dmitry Bivol last May left many boxing fans wondering about Canelo’s future.
Despite convincingly beating Gennady Golovkin in their trilogy fight in September, the shadow of his loss against the undefeated Russian boxer is still looming over the Guadalajara native.
One of his critics, José Benavídez Sr., father of David Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) -who could potentially fight Canelo-, said Álvarez is a worn-out fighter at the end of his career.
“You’ve got to understand. Canelo started at 16 years old. He’s been super disciplined, the best of the best. We started seeing problems with his knees, and then it went, then it went to his other one, and now he fractured his hand”, he said to Fight Hub TV.
“He’s been in a lot of wars, a lot of fights. I think he’s worn. Even though his mind is telling him that he can still do it, we can see he’s not the same anymore”, Benavidez Sr. added.
Canelo won’t fight David Benavidez
Canelo is expected to face John Ryder in May and fight Bivol in a rematch later this year, but according to Benavidez Sr., Álvarez won’t be willing to take the risk to face another naturally bigger and stronger fighter in David Benavidez.
“I think Canelo is at the end of his career. He will never face the Mexican Monster. He knows he’s young. He’d rather fight other fighters and never even pass the torch to a Mexican fighter. So that fight is out of the window, I don’t think it’s going to happen”, he stated.
Canelo is still a young fighter, but he’s been a professional since 2005 and has consistently been training since then with or without scheduled fights. It should also be taken into consideration the fact that the Mexican great took a lot of punishment in his three fights with Gennadiy Golovkin, as well as his recent fights against Dmitry Bivol and Caleb Plant.
In any case, the Canelo Álvarez vs David Benavidez bout seems quite far away, since the Mexican Monster will first need to defeat Caleb Plant and Canelo will need to do the same against Ryder and Bivol.