Benavidez would fight Plant over Canelo if given a choice
In his last outing, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (54-1-2, 36 KO’s) intimidated Callum “Mundo” Smith (27-1, 19 KO’s), chased him around and disfigured his arm. With the unanimous decision win came the spoils of Smith’s WBA super and vacant WBC world super middleweight titles. Along with obtaining the hardware, Alvarez unofficially legitimized the Canelo sweepstakes at 168lbs. According to the Mexican, he wants to unify the division before he leaves.
Among those who would love a fight with the redhead is David “Red Flag” Benavidez (23-0, 20 KO’s). In fact, Benavidez was the last owner of the WBC super middleweight title. Unfortunately for him, Red Flag lost the title to the scale in his last fight against Roamer Angulo (26-2, 22 KO’s). However, he is still ranked as the WBC’s #1 168lbs fighter right under Alvarez. So even without a title, Benavidez is in striking range of obtaining a showdown with the redhead.
PERSONAL OVER PROFIT!
In addition to craving a bout with Canelo, Benavidez would love to face his long time divisional rival. He and IBF world super middleweight champion Caleb “Sweethands” Plant (20-0, 12 KO’s) have barked at one another for years. In fact, their animosity is so deep-seeded that Red Flag would prefer a match with Plant over Alvarez. As he explained to Fight Hub TV, all the pay, accolades and glory are not as appealing as punching his long-time foe in the mouth.
“To be honest, I don’t know man, I would want to get a fight with Caleb Plant first. Just to get that out of the way. I feel like the time has passed, we been talking shit to each other. It’s been enough, we been hyping this up for like three years, so I feel like its time. And I might get that fight soon, so we’ll see. I’d rather go through everybody else to get to the top dog.”
“You know I don’t want to go to the first, the top, and then everybody else. But if I get it, of course I’ll fight it. But my plan, what I want to do is beat everybody in my promotion first before me move on. And that’s the person that is there, Caleb Plant. And that’s the fight I want most to be honest.”
YOU BUGGING
As a professional fighter, Benavidez has learned when to be civilized and when to turn on the mad dog. Yet, he believes that many boxers have lost their ability to differentiate between real life and selling a fight. Red Flag thinks that this is the case with Plant. Having watched and verbally jousted with him for so long, Benavidez is sure that Sweethands is lost in a role.
“It’s cool to be humble sometimes, but you got to have both sides to you. You have to have both, but sometimes I think people get caught up in that little character that they build for themselves, like your boy Caleb Plant. He builds a fucking character in his head! He thinks he’s a killer but has eleven knockouts. You’re not a fucking killer, it’s cool. Maybe be humble sometimes. Some people, they get it in their fucking heads that they’re killers and this and that and they are really not. It’s because they get lost in their character.”
Unless Plant wins the Canelo sweepstakes, a bout with Benavides would make for good news. As Red Flag said himself, that bout is well overdue and it is time to see who is the better man is!
By: Bakari Simpson
