Enough is Enough: Canelo Alvarez Needs to Stop Ducking David Benavidez

First off, let's dispense with a few things.

Canelo Alvarez is one of the best fighters in boxing and has been for a decade or so, depending on exactly when you began paying attention to his work.

He'll be a deserving Hall of Famer at the instant he's eligible, and anyone not marking his name on a ballot ought not to be trusted with one.

So, he's one of the handful of pros who, like it or not, has earned the new-school entitlement—because, let's face it, we're not going back to the old days—to pick his opponents regardless of rankings, mandatories, or sanctioning body oversights.

He doesn't mind if you don't agree.

You can rest assured, too, that he doesn't care.

But that doesn't mean you can't have an opinion about the choices he makes. And it doesn't mean those opinions aren't spot-on correct, whether he cares or not.

The opinion here is simple: Alvarez should fight David Benavidez.

But it's not because Alvarez's resume needs bolstering, or that, at age 33, he has something left to prove to the masses before riding into a Mexican sunset.

His lists of high-end foes and victories rival anyone's in the game today.

And his Saturday defeat of unbeaten slugger Jaime Munguia—who stood four inches taller, weighed three-quarters of a pound more, and was six years younger—added another one-sided footnote and a fourth defense of supremacy at 168.

He won by scores of 117-110, 116-111 and 115-112 and scored the fight's lone knockdown.

He's beaten almost everyone that anyone's ever suggested he fight. And with that, has gone far beyond having to apologize for his matchmaking decisions.

Nevertheless, he still ought to fight David Benavidez.

Because as much as any of the others Alvarez will surely consider before next appearing in September or whenever Benavidez has earned the opportunity to test himself.

He, too, has beaten everyone they've put in front of him.

Twenty-eight up and 28 down, all but four by KO, and nearly all in one-sided fashion.

He's a two-time champion in the same division where Alvarez now reigns, never lost the belt(s) in the ring and has been especially impressive against the highest-caliber opposition, stopping three of the four champions he's faced in nine rounds or less.

Against the other—ex-Alvarez victim Caleb Plant—he won 24 of a possible 36 rounds.

He's ranked second only to Alvarez at 168 by The Ring, ESPN, the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and other independent sources, as well as by the WBC, which installed him as Alvarez's mandatory challenger several months ago.

In other words, he's done everything he's needed to do to earn a shot.

In fact, it can be argued that he's done it several times over.

While Alvarez has sandwiched an overripe Gennady Golovkin and an overweight Jermell Charlo—neither of whom had ever competed in the weight class—around an overmatched John Ryder across the last two years, Benavidez has bided his time while violently mowing down David Lemieux (TKO 3), Plant (UD 12) and Demetrius Andrade (TKO 6).

Those three foes, incidentally, had gone 14-1 with eight KOs in their last 15 fights.

The evidence seems overwhelming. But it's no lock that Alvarez pulls the trigger.

He's labeled a rematch with light heavyweight champ Dmitry Bivol as priority since his second and most recent loss in May 2022, and a win for the Russian in an injury delayed unification with Artur Beterbiev makes a second go-round even bigger. And if Bivol loses, it's a mortal lock that Bob Arum and Co. dangle the winner as a consolation carrot.

There's a chance, too, that attention-seekers like Terence Crawford or Jake Paul dart in and turn his competitive head, given Alvarez's historic lean toward well-lit marquees.

It'd be unfortunate. But if you don't think it's possible, you don't know boxing.

It shouldn't come to that, though. And it won't unless Alvarez demands it.

He claimed during the Munguia fight week that he could handle both Munguia and Benavidez in one night and his Saturday hubris, calling himself the best Mexican fighter in the world right now, suggests it's a challenge he relishes.

"If the money is right, I can fight right now," he said. "I don't give a sh-t."

If you believe him, it's a done deal.

History shows, however, that there's a lot of ground between calling for fights and signing for them. Which means it'll be incumbent upon the Canastota-bound A-side to follow through on his bravado, settle on his money split, and simply dispense with the other minutiae that somehow finds ways to scuttle fan-friendly matches.

Alvarez has been too good for too long to have words like "ducked" and "avoided" stain his plaque in perpetuity, but if he again sidesteps a 6'2", pterodactyl-armed threat while hiding behind the shields of cash flow or "chasing greatness" they'll be precisely what he's earned.

Your move, Canelo.