David Benavidez rules out Canelo Alvarez fight but calls him a Mexican legend

The 29-year-old, now a three-division world champion campaigning at cruiserweight, said there is no chance of the long-awaited fight happening but that he hopes to follow in Alvarez's footsteps.

David Benavidez has accepted that he will never fight Canelo Alvarez, but he still regards the 36-year-old as a legend and wants to build a career like his.

For years Benavidez was the leading contender to face Alvarez at super-middleweight. He won the WBC 'interim' title with a third-round stoppage of David Lemieux in 2022, but it took another 16 months, and a unanimous decision over Caleb Plant, before the WBC confirmed him as Alvarez's mandatory challenger. He then stopped Demetrius Andrade in six rounds in another interim defence. By then the chances of the fight being made were slim.

Benavidez moved up and won a WBC title at 175lbs. He now fights at cruiserweight and became a three-division world champion when he dethroned Gilberto Ramirez with a sixth-round stoppage in May. He is still regularly asked about Alvarez.

Speaking on a podcast, Benavidez said there was no chance of the fight happening, but added: “At the end of the day, he’s a great fighter – he’s a legend – and I would like to be a legend like him and follow in his footsteps. I would like to be a great Mexican legend like him one day.” Alvarez is a four-division world champion. He became undisputed at super-middleweight before losing those titles to Terence Crawford. He is often placed among Mexico's greatest fighters alongside Julio Cesar Chavez and Salvador Sanchez.

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