Tim Bradley has weighed in on the three fight deal Canelo Alvarez has recently signed with Al Haymon’s PBC, and does not believe it will include David Benavidez.
Alvarez will take on undisputed light middleweight champion Jermell Charlo on September 20th at the T-Mobile Arena, before locking horns with two more fighters from Haymon’s deep stable.
And former world champion turned analyst Bradley told FightHype that he can’t imagine the Mexican, at this stage of his career, wants anything to do with the younger Benavidez.
“My guess is baby Charlo, the little Charlo [Jermell], the bigger Charlo [Jermall], and then Errol Spence. Those are the three fights.
I don’t even think Benavidez’s name will be on there. Absolutely not.
‘It’s a possibility. He’s with PBC. There’s definitely a possibility there that he fights Benavidez. But If Canelo can bypass Benavidez, he’s on the backend of his career. If he can bypass that animal, why not fight Spence?”
Fans will hope Bradley is wide of the mark with his assessment, as Benavidez is by far and away regarded as Canelo’s biggest test at super middleweight, where he has held all four world titles for 18 months.
However, Charlo is a top ten pound for pound fighter in the eyes of many and will have every intention of upsetting the applecart in Las Vegas.
Although he will have to jump up two weight classes to 168lbs, he and Canelo were once both in the same weight category and some believe that there may not be as big a size differential as one would initially expect.
Many in the sport also believe that Alvarez is a fighter on the decline, and in his last three fights against John Ryder, Gennadiy Golovkin and Dmitri Bivol, he has not looked as clinical as he has in prior outings.