Like most boxing fans, David Benavidez was a keen observer when Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez made his ring return this past weekend.
Canelo returned to action this past weekend, over a year after his defeat to Terence Crawford, with the chance to immediately win back one of the belts he lost in that fight.
Christian Mbilli was upgraded from interim to full WBC champion when Crawford retired, and took the lucrative route of Alvarez as a first defence.
The Mexican icon displayed typically sharp counterpunching and defence to nullify any pressure Mbilli brought, building a steady lead in the second half of the fight to win a unanimous decision.
Speaking to Fight Hub TV, Benavidez suggested that fans may not have got their money’s worth, and that was down to Alvarez.
“I’m going to critique Canelo. I know everybody’s gonna be extremely mad. See, so he earns all this money. He’s the greatest fighter in the world, right? We expect him to go in there and knock this guy out. We don’t expect him to go in there and just look for counter shots.
“If the other guy is not throwing any shots, well then be Canelo. Go in there, put pressure on, use your defence, use your head movement, go in there and take it just like how he did it with Caleb Plant. You know what I mean? He was in there looking for it until he knocked him out.”
Outside of a lack of urgency to get a stoppage and a reduced output, Benavidez was complimentary of Canelo’s work, going as far as saying that there is no active fighter in the super-middleweight ranks that can beat him.
“What I have noticed about him, he doesn’t throw much shots no more … I did see that he had some good moments in there. I mean, at the end of the day, I’m not being a hater. I’m just saying what I see. I think so [he still beats everyone at 168].
“He looked good. He looked really good. He just looked like he didn’t empty the whole gas tank out.
“I think Canelo needs somebody that really motivates him to get charged up to go out there and look for the knockout, just like he did with Plant.”
Benavidez has posed a question that Canelo’s team will be addressing soon enough – who and what will give him the motivation in his next fight.
