After chasing Canelo Alvarez for the best part of two years, David Benavidez now hopes another elite super-middleweight contender can be granted his long-awaited shot at the Mexican superstar. Ultimately, Benavidez was never presented with the definitive chance to become a three-time world champion at the 168-pound limit, despite making two successful defenses of his WBC interim title during a frustrating period of waiting.
As a result, many in the boxing community have routinely blamed Canelo for consistently ducking the undefeated fighter known universally as the "Mexican Monster." Now operating as a unified cruiserweight champion, Benavidez is realistically even less likely to ever share a ring with the modern pound-for-pound great, rendering a future showdown between them virtually impossible under current career trajectories.
Yet, while fully recognizing that his own ship has sailed in the super-middleweight division, Benavidez nonetheless hopes that former world middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly can successfully secure his own lucrative opportunity against the face of modern boxing.
The unbeaten Uzbek powerhouse vacated his WBO title at 160 pounds earlier this year, having previously been stripped of his IBF belt after testing positive for the banned substance meldonium in November 2025. Despite that tumultuous period outside the ring and the turbulence surrounding his championship reigns, the 33-year-old managed to position himself as the WBO’s mandatory challenger at 168 pounds.
That positioning initially pointed toward a high-stakes domestic clash with Hamzah Sheeraz, only for Sheeraz to unexpectedly vacate his own strap after their officially ordered bout went to a purse bid hearing. Instead of facing Sheeraz, Alimkhanuly is now scheduled to face fellow unbeaten contender Jacob Bank for the vacant title on January 23. A victory in that high-profile encounter could thrust him directly into the lucrative Canelo sweepstakes for 2027, creating a brand new landscape for the division’s upper echelon.
Speaking candidly during an interview with Fight Hub TV, Benavidez revealed that he sincerely hopes, but ultimately remains deeply doubtful, that a unification or championship match between Canelo and Alimkhanuly will ever materialize in the coming years.
"The only fight that I would love to see [Canelo in], which would be a great fight, [is against] Janibek," Benavidez told Fight Hub TV. "But I don’t think that would ever happen."
Most boxing analysts and observers seem to be highlighting Hamzah Sheeraz as a significantly more likely and commercially viable opponent for Canelo moving forward. This comes on the heels of Canelo’s commanding performance last month, where he successfully reclaimed his WBC super-middleweight title by unanimously outpointing and definitively dethroning Christian Mbilli in a grueling, high-stakes encounter.
As the 168-pound division continues to evolve without the presence of Benavidez, the weight class remains a focal point of the sport, with fighters like Alimkhanuly and Sheeraz positioning themselves to inherit the challenges that the "Mexican Monster" spent years trying to secure. Whether Canelo will choose to entertain these fresh stylistic matchups or look elsewhere for his next career-defining legacy fight remains one of the most compelling storylines in boxing as the calendar moves toward 2027.
