David Benavidez has no interest in super middleweight showdown with Terence Crawford: ‘I’m done at 168’

WBC light heavyweight champion David Benavidez left the super middleweight division when he couldn’t land a shot at then-undisputed champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Now that Alvarez no longer holds championship gold at 168 pounds, Benavidez says he has no interest in returning to the division.

Terence Crawford’s dominant win over Alvarez on Sept. 13 put all four super middleweight world titles in Crawford’s possession. With Alvarez now sidelined for the near future due to elbow surgery, Benavidez (30-0, 24 KO), who spent years chasing a fight with Alvarez that never materialized, seemed an appealing option for Crawford..

However, Benavidez told Fight Hub TV he was completely done with making the cut to super middleweight and had no interest in dropping back down for a fight with Crawford.

“I’m done with [super middleweight],” Benavidez said. “I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Crawford. He put on a hell of a performance. He’s up there on the Mount Rushmore of the greatest fighters of all time. Let Crawford do his thing, bro. At the end of the day, I have no interest in fighting Crawford. I have no interest in going down to 168. Yeah, it would be dope winning all the titles, but I’m way past that at 168. I wouldn’t even go down to 168 for Canelo. I’m just being real with you.

“I’m not saying I’m scared of Crawford or whatever. Crawford’s the man at 168. That’s his weight class. I’m done at 168. They can throw whatever money they want at me. My job is not only to get the money. My job is to give myself the best chance to win and to give myself the best chance of looking good.”

Benavidez twice held super middleweight gold, defeating Ronald Gavril in 2017 to win the vacant WBC title, and again winning the title in 2019 against Anthony Dirrell. Both of Benavidez’s runs with the title ended outside of the ring. He was stripped the first time around after he tested positive for cocaine in a test administered by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency in 2018. The second reign ended in 2020 when Benavidez failed to make weight for his title defense against Roamer Alexis Angulo.

Benavidez would put himself in line as a mandatory challenger for Alvarez’s titles by winning the interim WBC title at 168 pounds, a title he would successfully defend twice while waiting for a crack at the division’s king.

When that shot never came, Benavidez made the decision to move up a weight class, where he felt he may earn a shot at the winner of the undisputed title rivalry between Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev. He first won the WBC interim light heavyweight title with a win over Oleksandr Gvozdyk and followed that up by defeating David Morrell, another fighter who had left super middleweight when he felt he would never be granted a shot at Alvarez, for the WBA interim title.

After Bivol defeated Beterbiev in their rematch, earning undisputed status, he vacated the WBC title, which resulted in Benavidez being elevated from interim to world champion.

Benavidez is set to defend that title against Anthony Yarde in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Nov. 22, and the future for Benavidez remains at 175 pounds.

That said, Benavidez did express disappointment that he wasn’t the man to end Alvarez’s dominant run as champion.

“I kinda felt like that could’ve been me,” Benavidez said. “That was my moment. If I would’ve got in there, I know I would’ve beat him. … That’s why it didn’t happen, because Canelo knows that would’ve happened.”