By Norm Frauenheim
David Benavidez emerges from his victory over David Morrell in more control of his career than ever because of how he dominated often edgy pre-fight appearances, how he fought and how the boxing business changed wildly in the aftermath of the significant light-heavyweight fight.
Benavidez, a two-time super-middleweight once known for being the youngest champion in the history of the division, is moving on and up the scale, both in weight and wisdom. He’s a grown-up.
That’s the simplest way of saying it. Too simple, perhaps, mostly because there’s still a lot of maturing to do for an instinctive fighter who has an unrivaled upside. At 28 years old and just entering his prime, there’s still lots of time to grow into the stardom he foresees and many project.
Is he already there? No, and that’s good news, promising in part because Benavidez understands where he is — who he is — at this point in his ongoing transformation from an overweight, unknown Phoenix kid with no expectations to one who believes he can be the Face of the Game.
“I’ll be the Face of the Game soon,’’ he said boldly after his unanimous decision over Morrell a couple of weeks ago in front of a roaring, pro-Benavidez crowd at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.
Soon could mean just about anything, of course. There’s a debate about the so-called Face, a mythic title that some have tried to buy and others have tried to steal. For now, at least, it’s fair to argue there is no face. In acronym-speak, it’s vacant. There are choices, but no consensus. The numbers suggest that Canelo Alvarez still gets the nod, despite some support for Terence Crawford, Canelo’s future foe for a projected September date.
The debate is incomplete without at least a mention of Japan’s junior-featherweight whirlwind, Naoya Inoue, the Asian version of The Monster, and heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, a heroic face amid the Ukraine’s desperate war against the Russians. But if you take a well-worn path and follow the money, it’s Canelo, the only prizefighter to consistently crack the top tier of the Forbes’ list of the world’s wealthiest athletes. Over the last year, however, that changed. Usyk and Tyson Fury surpassed Canelo with two heavyweight title fights last year, both won by Usyk.
According to Sportico last week, Fury’s total for the two fights was $140 million and Usyk $120 million, placing both in a different income bracket than Canelo, whose 2024 income was reported to be $73 million. Sportico ranked Fury third, Usyk seventh and Canelo 20th among the world’s highest earning athletes last year.
But it’s a good bet that Canelo will re-take his income supremacy among prizefighters in 2025. Fury says he’s retired. But don’t count on it. Also, don’t count on him getting anywhere close to his 2024 income if he makes a comeback. Meanwhile, Usyk says he’ll fight two more times and retire. But no fight figures to pay him anything approaching the pay he collected against Fury. Meanwhile, Canelo has a rich, multi-fight deal with the Saudis
Add that to his documented command of pay-per-view numbers and the risk-reward ratio, and Canelo’s face still belongs on the game for the same reason George Washington’s face is on the dollar bill. That’s still where the value is. That’s also why Saudi Prince Turki Alalshikh, boxing’s new money man, scrambled to sign him to a four-fight contract and away from a Netflix spectacle with showman Jake Paul in an 11th-hour deal five days after Benavidez secured his own place as a prominent factor on boxing’s board of potential moves over the next couple of years.
The deal left one significant question. To wit: How much longer will Canelo hold the key to the vault? Like everything else amid the constant chaos, it’s impossible to know. Expectations, the business agenda’s glass jaw, is full of repeated examples. One unforeseen punch changes everything. For now, Canelo’s plans include a perceived tuneup in Riyadh during the first weekend in May against William Scull, a Cuban living in Germany who holds a piece of the 168-pound puzzle that the IBF — Irrelevant Boxing Federation took from Canelo. It’s an opportunity to restore some order, restore Canelo’s undisputed status, both in name and fact.
Barring that aforementioned punch, Canelo’s business plan then takes him to the intriguing September date with Crawford, perhaps in a ring on the Las Vegas Raiders home field at Allegiant Stadium. It’s a fight between two of the best from different weight classes. Canelo has more size and presumably power; the smaller Crawford has more speed and skill. There’s a reasonable argument for either in what looks to be pick-em fight between the best of a their generation.
Age is a factor. For Crawford, the Canelo challenge — and the payday it’ll include — looks to be a career ender. Crawford is 37. He’ll be 38 on September 28. From Jaron “Boots’’ Ennis to Vergil Ortiz, the former welterweight great, who has fought once at junior-middle, has ignored challenges from the young lions.
Then, there’s Canelo. Between Scull and Crawford, Mexico’s pay-per-view star will celebrate a birthday. He’ll be 35 on July 18. He’s talked about retiring when he turns 37. Beyond the planned Crawford date, there are two more fights on his contract with Alalshikh. What happens against Crawford is sure to dictate what happens to the remaining dates. If Canelo loses to the smaller man, maybe he retires. If he wins, presumably he fights on in a scenario that could include Benavidez.
If nothing else, Canelo’s deal with Alalshikh has revived some of the talk about Benavidez-versus-Canelo, which for years has been No. 1 on the list of fights the fans most want to see. Those fans haven’t forgotten. Benavidez has moved on, onto light-heavy, after years of calling out Canelo in a futile chase that threatened to define him. He continued to hear the question, even on the night after he proved he could stand on his own — define himself on his own terms — against Morrell.
What about Canelo? The question was inevitable, of course.
“I would love to fight Canelo, it would be a massive, massive, fight,’’ Benavidez said. “But, Canelo says he has other things and he says I’m being ‘too mean’ in the way I’m approaching him. I guess I got to work on my attitude.”
Then, it was a joke, almost said as if it was a parting shot. But the Canelo-Alalshikh deal five days later kept the possibility on the table. It depends on the Crawford-Canelo outcome. It also depends on Benavidez’ next move. He’s expected to be in Riyadh next Saturday (Feb. 22) for the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitrii Bivol rematch of Beterbiev’s narrow victory for the light-heavyweight title last October. Benavidez is in line to face the winner. Even that plan is uncertain, however. Father Time, also like that unforeseen punch, can change everything. Beterbiev had another birthday last month. He turned 40 on January 21. Retirement can’t be too far away.
What remains in place, however, is Benavidez’ current place among the fighters who hold the key to boxing’s future. Benavidez, a consensus pick for the pound-for-pound’s top 10 for the first time this month, is there alongside Tank Davis and Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez. He’s younger than Crawford, Canelo and Beterbiev. He’s younger, too, than Inoue, 31, and Usyk, 38.
Meanwhile, Benavidez is just getting started, a still emerging and maturing force who used his comprehensive victory over Morrell as a way to announce he’ll be around for awhile.
