Canelo Alvarez has responded to the growing hype around super middleweight rival David Benavidez, as well as the calls for the pair to fight.
Benavidez secured the best win of his professional career last weekend, when he won a unanimous decision victory over former Canelo opponent Caleb Plant at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Speaking to Fight Hub TV, the undisputed champion at 168lbs gave ‘The Mexican Monster’ credit, but reminded the attending media that there were similar comments made about Gennadiy Golovkin before Canelo stepped into the ring with him.
“He’s a good fighter. But everybody said the same thing before I fought Golovkin! They said “wow, he’s a monster, he’s going to knock out Canelo, he’s this and that.” But it is not the same being in the ring with other fighters and being in the ring with me – it’s different.”
“I like challenges, and it’s a really hard fight for me. But I’ve been in the ring for a lot of years and had a lot of hard fights.
Despite the growing hype around a potential fight against Benavidez, Canelo will be fully focused on his return to the ring on May 6th, when he takes on mandatory challenger John Ryder in a homecoming bout at Akron Stadium in his native Guadalajara.
It will be the first time the 32- year-old star has boxed in Mexico in 12 years, and is widely anticipated to be one of the country’s biggest sporting events in years.
Though Ryder is a good fighter coming off some solid performances, Canelo is a firm favourite to retain his belts as he looks towards a September rematch with Dmitry Bivol, to whom he suffered a surprise defeat last year.