Rarely will age questions be asked of a 27-year-old fighter seemingly in his prime. However, in boxing, age is a much more complicated formula than just the number by itself. Factors such as mileage, physiology, mental strength, competitive spirit, career, ego, defensive skills, training habits, lifestyle, and even finances can play a major role in the life of the fighter.
First, let’s take a look at the positive factors in favor of the Phoenix, AZ native. Benavidez had a very short amateur career, going undefeated in 15 fights before turning pro at the age of 16. In his 11 years as a pro, he took very little punishment due to careful matchmaking against to opponents especially underpowered and still inexperienced. His head is also large, and his facial features show evidence of a large skull.
Many big-headed fighters have had long careers absorbing punishment with little effect in the ring or later in life. Mike Tyson and Julio Cesar Chavez are prime examples of this. David also showed great training discipline while in the gym, often losing tens of pounds in the final weeks of camp. A limited level of competition considered, David always showed a warrior spirit in the ring.
The weighting game
Unfortunately, Benavidez has several negative factors that could indicate an abbreviated career that seems to be just beginning to casual level fans. To begin with, David has a weight problem. At just over 6’0 tall, David is known to weigh as much as 250 pounds. At 16, not even fully developed, he was fighting as a professional Cruiserweight (200).
David has been able to turn this negative into a temporary positive so far by using extreme training and diet measures to squeeze up to the Super Middleweight division (168) for weight, then rehydrating back to Cruiserweight in time for the ring walk. This short-sighted method of gaining an advantage leads to a huge deficit in the back-end. This is not only one of the most career-shortening techniques used by predatory fighters in recent times, but it is also the most dangerous for both fighters in the ring.
For casual level fans who do not understand boxing and see this as a chess move within the rules of the sport, there is a failure to understand that this is nothing but an exploitation of a rule put in place to prevent the probability of tragedies to ring. The weights were once held on the day of the fight, which prevents fighters who struggle to make weight from rehydrating properly before receiving blows to the head later in the evening.
This creates an extremely dangerous situation where the protective cerebrospinal fluids surrounding the brain and spinal cord are depleted due to extreme dehydration. This is the reason that most of the tragedies of boxing occur outside of the Heavyweight division, where there is no need to dehydrate yourself to meet a contracted weight limit.
To subvert this potentially lethal danger, weights have been moved to the day before, sometimes even two days before, to protect not only the fighters, but the sport itself, which has long suffered scrutiny for its barbarism and tragic history . David is not the first, although he is certainly one of the most extreme cases, of fighters who have turned this safety measure into an opportunity to exploit their opponents and create an entirely new dangerous situation where a fighter enjoys a advantage of twenty to thirty pounds. his opponent in the ring.
Just look at Devin Haney, once beaten, the most extreme abuser of safety measures in modern boxing, to see how quickly your career can be completely derailed once your body has had too much of this predatory practice and you’re forced to face an almost equal opponent.
The Situation of Canelo
Benavidez has already shown several signs that his body can no longer take the abuse of these extreme weight fluctuations. David made a name for himself by sticking with Canelo Alvarez’s career. So effective is this marketing ploy that you rarely hear a name mentioned without another name following shortly after.
Interestingly, many casual level fans and schedule pundits did not realize that David Benavidez has already had three opportunities to face Canelo Alvarez, having blown all three either stupidly or, as most believe, intentionally.
In July 2018, while on the promotional tour for his rematch against Gennady Golovkin, Canelo Alvarez proclaimed his intention to move to the Super Middleweight (168) division if he defeats Golovkin. Canelo, being a Mexican national where the WBC belt is held in the highest esteem of all titles, will first seek the WBC belt held by David Benavidez.
Less than a month later, on August 27, 2018, VADA collected a scheduled urine sample from Benavidez. On September 18, 2018, the day before Canelo vs. Golovkin, Benavidez’s August urinalysis results revealed a positive result for cocaine. David was stripped of the title and suspended, robbing Canelo of the opportunity to compete for the WBC Super Middleweight (168) title.
Instead of fighting for the newly vacant belt, which the WBC was practically throwing at him due to his high earnings translating into disproportionately high sanctioning fees, Canelo instead challenged WBA Champion Rocky Fielding while Benavidez’s belt served the his suspension. Instead of collecting the WBC belt in an awkward way, Canelo, in turn, collected more belts at 160 and even 175, while allowing Benavidez to get his career back on track, finally regaining the WBC title 168 a year later in September 2019.
The stage is back for Canelo vs. Benavidez for the WBC World Championship, WBA Regular, and Ring Super Middleweight (168) on Cinco De Mayo weekend in 2021. David would take a tune-up fight in August 2020 to prepare for his shot to career-defining immortality and Canelo would challenge undefeated 6’3 world champion Callum Smith in December 2020 to prepare for the size of Benavidez. However, with his supposed dream fight on the table, David inexplicably tipped the scales at over 170 pounds for the weight of his defense against Angulo and was immediately stripped of the WBC title.
Canelo, who has now given Benavidez two opportunities while waiting two years, has been forced to move on with his career and the WBC belt has just been added to the pot in the battle for the Lineal Super Middleweight Champion against the undefeated World Champion Callum Smith.
For the next three years, Benavidez would chase Canelo and the media for a shot at Alvarez’s now undisputed Super Middleweight (168) Championship. Canelo, finding it increasingly difficult to take Benavidez seriously due to his loss of two previous opportunities to land the fight, refused to entertain the match due to Benavidez’s unreliability as a professional and questionable value. However, at the beginning of 2024, the WBC publicly announced that they will be enforcing a mandatory defense of Canelo’s WBC championship against David Benavidez.
Rather than vacate, Canelo accepted the decision and allowed his team to submit an offer to Benavidez. David accepted the offer, and once again, the fight was on. However, before detailed negotiations could begin, David shockingly announced that he would be leaving the 168-pound division and challenging Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the WBC Light Heavyweight (175) interim replica belt.
This move shocked the Boxing community, Boxing Pundits, The WBC, Team Canelo, and left jaws agape throughout the sport and beyond. For months afterward, Benavidez bounced back and forth about facing Canelo at Super Middleweight (168), changing his mind almost daily until serious interest in the match-up waned and the match became impossible from a promotional point of view.
David Benavidez intentionally wasted three opportunities to face Canelo after greatness and built his entire career to be the final challenge of Canelo’s Hall of Fame career, which can only mean one of two things. David either never really intended to face Canelo and just wanted to ride the coattails of the universally recognized Face of Boxing, or he is simply no longer capable of making the 168-pound weigh-in and remaining competitive.
Have the miles, the partying, and the prematurely draining weight taken their toll on David’s body and psyche? The training videos showed David weighing somewhere between 210 and 230 pounds, essentially converting his training camps into fat camps where the focus is losing weight rather than gaining strength, technique and skill.
The Last Stand
Benavidez is now set to face David Morrell, a big, young, strong and talented, but inexperienced, 11-fight Light Heavyweight (175) prospect. Morrell is known for collecting replica third place belts held by the Undisputed Champions of the Super Middleweight (168) and Light Heavyweight (175) divisions.
Benavidez, not a big puncher at Super Middleweight (168), brings below-average strength and power to Light Heavyweight (175). In fact, it can be argued that he has only ever fought two fighters of equal size in his professional career. The first was 6’2 Ronald Gavril.
Most experts agree that Benavidez was well beaten in their first fight, with one judge scoring the fight for Gavril by a dominant score of 116-111 and giving him a huge gift by technically maintaining his unbeaten record . To his credit, David corrected this mistake by immediately re-matching Gavril and just winning the fight, although not spectacularly.
The second is his most recent opponent, Gvozdyk. David won the decision but looked soft, slow and weak compared to his previous performances against disadvantaged opponents. Unfortunately for Benavidez, his career has come to a dead end in almost every direction. He clearly can no longer compete against smaller fighters without giving up the advantages he had when facing smaller fighters, but he does not bring the strength and power to compete with the top echelon at Light Heavyweight (175) .
If he were to succeed against Morrell, which is far from a guarantee, then undisputed champion Artur Beterbiev would likely wear down and knock out Benavidez in 3 or 4 rounds. Potentially injure him permanently. Dmitri Bivol, once beaten, would likely be worse for David because Bivol is a punishing fighter who lacks the KO power of one punch, but is a strong, high-volume puncher who can dangerously extend a vicious streak on a compromised physical fighter like David Benavidez.
David really only has one path to ensure financial security for the rest of his life: boxing immortality. This path, in addition to defeating David Morrell, requires Canelo Alvarez to defeat and defeat Artur Beterbiev, then trusting the bravery and professionalism of Benavidez by offering him a fourth opportunity to fight, Benavidez accepted the fight, then beat Canelo and immediately retired Undisputed Light Heavyweight Champion of the world.
It’s not a very likely scenario considering the ambiguity of all these scenarios and their respective outcomes, but it’s clearly the path David is on in his attempt to collect replicas of Beterbiev’s belts and the accompanying mandatory challenge positions , while at the same time it decreases several times. offer to actually face Artur Beterbiev in the ring.
Any other scenario than this will absolutely result in David Benavidez’s first loss in 2025, coupled with the inevitable downward spiral that history has shown to follow time and time again with countless boxing talents that have come and gone in a flash in the annals of boxing. The loneliest sport.
