Canelo Alvarez and David Benavidez may never meet in the ring, but ‘The Mexican Monster’ has met Canelo’s training partner, and it did not go well for Team Alvarez.
David Benavidez improved his undefeated record with a win over Cuban David Morrell in his latest fight. Benavidez, nicknamed ‘The Mexican Monster’ continues his light-heavyweight campaign, and a fight with super-middleweight Canelo Alvarez seems to be nothing more than an outdated fantasy.
Benavidez has, however, faced one of Canelo’s regular sparring partners.
David Benavidez put a beating on Ronald Ellis before stopping Canelo’s teammate
In 2021, Benavidez, whose brother was KOd by Terence Crawford, faced Ronald Ellis just three fights after defeating Anthony Dirrell for the WBC Super-middleweight title.
Ellis is a longtime sparring partner for Canelo, and has been pictured with the champ after one of their sessions.
Ellis proved to be a durable opponent, going into deep waters with Benavidez, whose dad created a fight mansion. At the time, only one man had more time in the ring with the Mexican – Ronald Gavril, who took Benavidez the distance twice.
Though Ellis was surviving the rounds, he certainly wasn’t winning them, and, in the eleventh round, the fight was stopped. Ellis won one of ten rounds on two judges’ cards, and two rounds on another.
David Benavidez wants to fight the only active boxer to have beaten Canelo next
Following his win over Morrell, Benavidez has eyed a light-heavyweight war with undisputed champion, Dmitry Bivol, who avenged his only loss to win all the marbles of the division in his rematch with Artur Beterbiev.
Benavidez explained why he wants to fight Bivol next, and said: “Basically when I beat Bivol, that’ll make my case that I’m better than Canelo. We’ve sparred a lot, and we’ve had some great sparring sessions, so I’d love to fight Bivol.”
Benavidez allegedly dropped Bivol in sparring.
Canelo lost to Bivol by unanimous decision in 2022.