The undisputed super-middleweight champion gets to call the shots! Canelo Alvarez made it crystal clear in the post-match interview of his fight against Jaime Munguia. “I can ask whatever I want and I can do whatever I want.” Is he right in making such a statement? Well, some would say that with close to two decades of blood, sweat, and tears he has given to the sport of boxing, conquering four weight divisions, he has immense leverage. But, he might be exerting too much control for some people’s liking. Enter, the WBC interim-super-middleweight champion David Benavidez.

‘The Mexican Monster’ has accused Canelo of holding up the super-middleweight division. To be fair to Benavidez, Canelo did ask for a hefty price tag of $200 million for an epic bout under the floodlights. The 29-year-old Phoenix, Arizona, native’s response – “buy a pair of n*ts”. In his recent interview with FightHype, he has fired shots at Canelo again. This time, he asserted that Alvarez was pulling the wool over the fight fans’ eyes.

Is Canelo acting like a true champion?

As things stand, David Benavidez is not waiting around for Canelo to give him a title shot. He will be facing Ukraine’s Oleksandr Gvozdyk at 175 pounds on June 15. Ahead of his upcoming fight, he sat down with the FightHype crew to explain the injustice done to him and other worthy contenders of the super-middleweight division.

“If you hold all the titles, you’ve gotta fight the best in the division. I’m #1 and #2 is David Morrell. He’s not fighting me and he’s not fighting Morrell.  How long is he gonna call himself champion if he doesn’t fight #1 or #2?”  Benavidez said.

The Mexican-American boxer has been Canelo’s WBC mandatory challenger for almost two years; but, to no avail as Canelo managed to be evasive courtesy the WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman’s inability to arrange the potential blockbuster event.

Next in line is WBA (Regular) super-middleweight titleholder David Morrell. The exciting young prospect in the 168-pound division is 10-0 with 9 KO victories. However, the 26-year-old boxer wasn’t going to play the waiting game with Alvarez as well. But why? He claimed that Alvarez wasn’t going to risk another loss in his boxing record against young blood like him or Benavidez. “I think he wants to finish his career as what he is right now, someone who is undisputed in more than one weight,” he added. Accordingly, he made the jump to the light-heavyweight division, following in Benavidez’s footsteps.

Meanwhile, Benavidez came firing on all cylinders as he accused Canelo of taking fight fans for granted. “This guy’s charging so much for his PPVs, it’s like he’s spitting in you guys’ faces. He’s saying he doesn’t give a f*** what you guys want, he’s not gonna give you the best fights.”

So, keeping speculations aside, in another interview, Benavidez made his two cents known regarding Canelo’s astronomical price tag of $200 million. Was it enticing enough?

A bout to set Alvarez up for life?

In an interview with the Million Dollaz Worth Of Game podcast, Benavidez pointed out that ‘Cinnamon’ was looking for a way out of the boxing game with one last hefty paycheck credited to his bank account. If Alvarez, who is now 33, was going to potentially put his body on the line against a dangerous opponent, it has to come at an exorbitant price. [Because] he knows damn well, that’s his retirement plan,” Benavidez emphasized.

“He knows damn well, I’m the strongest, I’m the fastest and I’m the best at this weight class. If it wasn’t for him, not fighting me I’d have been champion already,” he added.

The 29-year-old boxer still isn’t giving up hope on his dream fight against Canelo as he said, “I will be the one to dethrone Canelo.”

Canelo might be avoiding Benavidez on account of poor PPV buys in his last couple of bouts. Even though Benavidez put on a good show, he only generated a dismal 60,000 PPV buys in his last fight against Demetrius Andrade. Sounds measly, right? What about his fight against former super-middleweight champion Caleb Plant? Bob Arum claimed that the event had less than “100k” buys, a poor show at the box office indeed! In some way, it might be a justification for Canelo pricing himself out of a clash with Benavidez.

Is Canelo saving the Benavidez bout for the last showdown of his career? Or will Canelo Alvarez retire without ever fighting the ‘Mexican Monster’? Feel free to let us know.