“The last straw. We took his appointment,” Jose Benavidez Sr. said. told Mill City Boxing. “We called him out. He was there, and he ran out.”
Benavidez Sr. also suggested the family is willing to target the September Mexican Independence Day weekend, another slot long associated with Canelo throughout his career.
“Yes, we are waiting,” Jose Sr. said. said when asked about September.
“Everybody’s talking about it now. We’re ready. We’re here. Nobody’s going there. It’s a different time,” Benavidez Sr. said.
The comments reflect how the Benavidez camp increasingly sees David as the new center of attention among Mexican and Mexican-American boxing fans, especially after Canelo moved up to face Terence Crawford instead of finally fighting Benavidez.
But the reality of the calendar is more complicated than the rhetoric.
Cinco de Mayo became available in large part because Canelo sat out the weekend due to a healing elbow injury. September is different. If Canelo is healthy, it’s hard to imagine him willingly giving up Mexican Independence Day, which remains one of the biggest commercial weekends in boxing.
Running live against Canelo on that date is likely to severely divide the audience. Canelo still carries the larger mainstream fan base, gate history and pay-per-view pull despite criticism surrounding the Benavidez situation.
That’s why Jose Sr. sounds ‘s comment more symbolic than literal.
The Benavidez camp appears to be focused on claiming cultural momentum rather than trying to truly go head-to-head with Canelo financially. In their eyes, the fact that fans continue to talk about the fight years later represents its own kind of victory.
The “he ran out” line also makes it clear that the bitterness surrounding the game has not faded. The Benavidez team still believes Canelo avoided David for stylistic reasons, especially after years of public pressure for the fight to take place at 168.
Now, instead of chasing the fight directly, the conversation has shifted to legacy, attention, and who represents the future of Mexican boxing. Whether that actually amounts to ownership of Canelo’s traditional fight weekends is another question entirely.
