Tickets go on sale today (Thursday, March 31) for David Benavidez vs. David Lemieux for the vacant interim WBC super middleweight championship at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz. on May 21st.
Less than a month later, WBC champion Jermall Charlo will defend his title against Maciej Sulecki in Houston on June 18th.
If only Benavidez and Charlo were fighting each other, the way Canelo Alvarez suggested back in February.
“They need to fight each other,” Alvarez told ESNEWS when asked about a host of possible opponents, including Benavidez and Charlo.
“And I’ll fight the winner of all of them. Why they don’t fight each other?”
Canelo is right.
Lemieux and Sulecki aren’t pushovers. They’re hard-nosed, game fighters that could push and test Benavidez and Charlo, respectively.
Lemieux is a former middleweight world champion who was stopped by TKO at the hands of Gennadiy Golovkin in October 2015 and outpointed by former middleweight world titleholder Billy Joe Saunders in December 2017.
Similarly, Sulecki was soundly defeated via unanimous decision to still-reigning WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade in June 2019 and was outpointed by former world titleholder Daniel Jacobs in April 2018.
Lemieux and Sulecki are tough, but be clear that Benavidez and Charlo could make their respective bouts against them look like showcases on their home soil and would have been better off fighting each other. That way, the winner is left knocking on Canelo’s door with such fan groundswell that the face of boxing has no choice but to accept the challenge.
Instead, fans are getting Benavidez vs. Lemieux and Charlo vs. Sulecki back to back.
Mike Tyson put Charlo on the spot via his podcast, Mike Tyson’s Hotboxin’, earlier this month, imploring that the he fights Benavidez.
“I’ll fight him for sure,” Charlo told Tyson about throwing hands with Benavidez.
“I just think his value is low. He’s not worth as much fighting someone like Canelo.”
No one is worth as much fighting someone like Canelo. In the interim, though, clashing with Benavidez would be an amazing opportunity. Benavidez is an undefeated former two-time WBC super-middleweight world champion and just 25-years-old. The 31-year-old Charlo is undefeated, too.
Charlo continued telling Tyson that “I’d rather get one of the best in the world right now that got a belt,” and that could be Benavidez if he defeats Lemieux as expected.
“David Lemieux still has a lot of power, so I have to make sure I sharpen all my skills 100 percent,” Benavidez said in a recent press release statement.
“I’m confident I can stop Lemieux and I’m planning on giving my fans another great fight on May 21.”
It may very well wind up being just that — a “great fight.” But not as great as Charlo vs. Benavidez, whether at catchweight, 160 or 168 pounds. That’s a fight fight that would catapult the winner into a position that Canelo couldn’t deny. It's worth the risk on both fighters' parts to earn a crack at Canelo. Sometimes you can't wait until the cash cow picks you; you have to fight it into existence.
Alvarez could end 2022 as the undisputed light heavyweight champion of the world if things go his way this year. That would make the Benavidez-Charlo winner as his next great test. And it could have happened, considering both Benavidez and Charlo fight under the PBC umbrella. Instead, we’re getting Benavidez vs. Lemieux and Charlo vs. Sulecki in the interim as good fights, but an incredible lost opportunity.
If Benavidez and Charlo win impressively less than a month apart, they’ll essentially be on the same time table moving ahead. Perhaps a fight in December could be worked out, making amends to fans.
Canelo would be watching. So would the world.