Crawford: Canelo’s Benavidez Avoidance Rooted In ‘Mexican’ Disrespect, Not Boxing Skill

Terence Crawford doesn’t believe that Canelo Alvarez has been avoiding a fight against David Benavidez all these years, as many fans do. Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) says Alvarez has chosen not to fight Benavidez because he’s been “extra disrespectful” toward him.

Terence notes that Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) has fought other fighters who disrespected him, but he took it more personally because Benavidez is “Mexican” and he went a little further with his biting remarks. He’s actually not Mexican. Benavidez is American and has half Ecuadoran and half Mexican roots. He’s NOT from Mexico.

Benavidez Avoidance

Fans don’t buy that excuse for why Canelo hasn’t fought Benavidez. They just see it as Alvarez not wanting to fight someone who would likely beat him and possibly knock him out. It’s the same reason Canelo chose to fight Dmitry Bivol when he went up to 175 rather than Artur Beterbiev three years ago when he fought for a world title in 2022.

It’s not a shock that Crawford is painting a positive picture, why Canelo hasn’t fought Benavidez, because he’s in line to face him on September 13th. The last thing Crawford needs is to get on Canelo’s bad side and have him choose not to take the fight with him. This is retirement money Crawford is getting for this fight. It would be interesting if Terence started bad mouthing Canelo, telling it like it is, and then he stubbornly refuses to fight him in September. Where would Crawford go?

“When you look at the history of Canelo, about all the disrespectful fighters, calling him out, there were a lot of them. He fought all of them. From Shane Mosley to Lara, Danny Jacobs and Saunders,” said Terence Crawford to Ring Magazine about Canelo Alvarez’s past opponents.

“When you look at all the fighters that were disrespectful to Canelo and he still fought them. I think from a Mexican standpoint, when you’ve got two Mexicans and one is being extra disrespectful to the other, he just took that more so personal on the race aspect about it than the sport,” said Crawford about why he believes Canelo has chosen not to fight Benavidez.

“He took the sport out of it and decided he wasn’t going to give Benavidez the payday that he wanted just because he felt something different in that moment,” said Crawford.