David Benavídez has kept the Canelo Álvarez fight in the conversation, and this time he put a blunt marker on it: he says he would have beaten him five years ago and would still win now. Benavídez said any renewed talks would have to happen at 175 pounds, a clear sign that the long-discussed matchup at 168 pounds is no longer the frame he wants.
That matters today because Benavídez is not speaking as a prospect chasing a name. He is the current unified champion in the light heavyweight and cruiserweight divisions, and he used an interview on Luis Parra's channel to revisit the fight that never happened when the 168-pound division was being consolidated. He said that when Álvarez moved up, he was about 24 years old and believed the bout could have been made if Álvarez had wanted it.
Benavídez said he lost the title for missing weight in 2020, but he still argued that the matchup was there for the taking. In his view, Álvarez's first defense of the CMB title was against Yildirim, which is why he says the fight could have been arranged then if the other side had chosen that path. He added that Álvarez went another route instead of facing him.
The contradiction is hard to miss. Benavídez says he would have beaten Álvarez then, and he says he would beat him now, but he also admits that in 2020 he did not make the limit and lost the title. He did not try to soften that point. He simply folded it into the larger claim, saying that he had speed, power, defense and everything needed to make the fight difficult for Álvarez.
He went further and said Álvarez never fought him because he knew Benavídez had too many tools to complicate the matchup. That is the kind of statement that keeps a rivalry alive even when the contracts never land. Benavídez is already looking elsewhere for unifications in higher divisions, with Noel Mikaelian or Dmitry Bivol in play, but his team says any future negotiations with Álvarez would have to start at 175 pounds.
So the old 168-pound debate is not really a debate anymore. Benavídez has moved up, Álvarez moved on, and the gap between them is now measured less by promises than by whether either side ever decides a 175-pound fight is worth making real.
