Ronnie Shields naysays bout with David Benavidez
For the past number of months, there has been a growing desire to see WBC World middleweight champion Jermall “Hit Man” Charlo (32-0, 22 KO’s) step-up his competition. There is no doubt that Charlo is a premium talent. The trouble is he is not testing himself against other top competitors. As far as would-be opposition goes, he has two fights with WBO World middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade and super middleweight David “Red Flag” Benavidez (24-0, 21 KO’s).
Of the two, in recent months, the showdown with Benavidez seems to have garnered more attention. Within increasing frequency this speculative battle has been discussed by media members and fans alike. So much so that his brother, unified super welterweight Jermell Charlo, felt the need to verbally come to his brother’s aid. Admittedly it is getting tiresome to hear Jermall Charlo complain about not getting the big fights while simultaneously turning up his nose to big fights.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
The calls for Hit Man to take on tougher challenges is only getting louder. Similar to his brother, Charlo’s chief second, Ronnie Shields, has been forced to repeat some of Jermall’s bizarre rhetoric.
“Well you know it would have been better if Benavidez would have still been a champion. Because if Jermall beats him now, he just beat another opponent. Benavidez brings nothing to the table. What does he have? He doesn’t have anything. He was champion of the world and lost his belt on the scale. Now he is chasing trying to get the belt back.”
“…You got to stick with what makes sense. It’s a fight that fans want to see, of course; fans want to see good boxing, but at the same time this is a business. So if you don’t have to go through him to get to him, why go through him when we don’t have to? He’s right there.”
PLEASE PULL THE TRIGGER!!!
The Charlo talking points that Shields is regurgitating in many ways ring hollow. No, Benavidez is no longer a champion. Yet, if we’re going to play that game, Montiel was not a champion, had numerous defeats, is virtually unknown and was ranked lower than Benavidez. From this angle, between the two, Montiel was “just another opponent.” Benavidez is a highly regarded, undefeated former champion and is ranked #1 (WBC).
Pretending that all these well-known facts don’t exist is just a bad look, especially since Charlo keeps flip-flopping on the issue. Directly after the Montiel scrap, Hit Man said he would face Andrade. Now his trainer is backtracking. Instead of appearing like Team Charlo is in a superior position, it makes Hit Man look like he is outright avoiding Benavidez. For the sake of Charlo’s reputation and the fans’ desire for fantastic scraps, let’s hope that we can get this intriguing match-up. Yet, going by the history, this bout will not be announced any time soon.
By: Bakari Simpson
