The fans may want the fight, but unified super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez still doesn’t think David Benavidez has done enough to earn a bout with him.

In an interview with Brian Mazique of FightHype, Alvarez showed no respect for his potential rival. When asked what turned him off about Benavidez’s pursuit of a fight with him, Alvarez closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead wearily, initially saying he didn’t know how to answer the question.

Then he sounded off.

“The way he talks, he thinks he’s Superman,” Alvarez said. “He’s very disrespect[ful] – not just with me, with everybody.”

And then the capper: “He’s accomplished nothing. He’s not even a champion. He’s not even in my weight class. There’s a lot of things that doesn’t make sense.”

Alvarez’s explanations for his avoidance of a fight with Benavidez have been scattered and easy to poke holes in, frustrating fans. Benavidez was, in fact, in Canelo’s weight class until late 2024, when he departed for light heavyweight in part because Alvarez would not fight him. And Benavidez has accomplished quite a bit – his four-fight run featuring wins over Caleb Plant, Demetrius Andrade, Oleksandr Gvozdyk and David Morrell Jnr has been enough to land him a spot on plenty of credible pound-for-pound lists. 

In the past, Alvarez has also fought at 175lbs and even spoken about wanting to box at cruiserweight. And he has had testy relationships with previous opponents – Caleb Plant and Gennady Golovkin repeatedly trotting out Alvarez’s 2018 failed drug test were also viewed as “disrespectful.”

Alvarez’s next opponent is William Scull, whom he will fight in a bid to re-unify all the 168lbs titles on May 5. Despite Scull’s pedigree lagging behind that of Benavidez, Alvarez had kinder words for his upcoming opponent.

“He’s a world champion, and I want to be undisputed champion again. … He’s tall. He knows how to use the ring. Very good jab. He has qualities.”

Although Alvarez’s explanations for why he won’t fight “The Mexican Monster” tend not to pass the smell test, he did say one thing in the interview that more likely gets at the real reason he prefers not to test himself against Benavidez: “At this point in my career, I can do whatever I want.”

Owen Lewis is a former intern at Defector media and writes and edits for BoxingScene. His beats are tennis, boxing, books, travel and anything else that satisfies his meager attention span. He is on Bluesky.