Undefeated super middleweight contender David Benavidez, 24-years-old, feels confident that he can stop Mexican superstar Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, who holds the WBC, WBA world titles at 168-pounds.
“I’ll knock [Canelo] out! I’ll stop him! It takes a lot of balls to say that but the reason why I’m saying that is because I really fully, truly believe I’m the one that can beat and stop Canelo,” Benavidez said to TMZ.
Benavidez returns to the ring on March 13th, when he faces Ronald Ellis in a Showtime televised main event from the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.
Canelo is back on May 8th, when he faces WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders in a three belt unification.
The goal for Benavidez (23-0, 20 KOs) is to face Ellis, then get WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo to move up for a fight – and then jump from that contest to a showdown with IBF champion Caleb Plant. And follow all of that up with a clash against Canelo.
“The dream scenario is fight with [Jermall] Charlo right after and then Caleb Plant and then Canelo. That’s the dream scenario but the reality of making that happen, is very hard,” Benavidez said.
Canelo has been dominating the competition at 168.
Benavidez feels strongly that he can succeed where other boxers have failed.
“The top people [Canelo’s] fought, they just look like they’re scared of him and they just respect him too much, but me, I feel like I’m a young, hungry lion! I need that fight because I wanna show the fans how good I really am,” Benavidez said.
“He’s gonna try avoid me as long as possible, but I feel like at the end of the day, this fight is gonna be demanded. Not by just me, but by everybody. Everybody’s gonna wanna see it because after he beats Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant, who else is there left for him to fight besides David Benavidez?”
–boxingscene.com
