Via Dan Ambrose: Former super-middleweight champions David Benavidez (26-0.23 KOs) and Jose Uzcategui (32-4.27 KOs) are finalizing a deal for them to play in January.
Benavidez, 25, and Uzcategui were scheduled to fight last November, but unfortunately Jose failed a drug test for the banned substance rEPO.
Mike Coppinger’s ESPN.
Benavidez needed a win over Uzcategui to keep the undisputed pressure on super-middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez to take on him.
Interestingly, the World Boxing Council took the time to order Canelo to defend against Benavidez even though he was required to have a WBC belt since last year.
Boxing fans aren’t too thrilled to hear that Benavidez will face Uzcategui next rather than a higher-ranking contender in the tournament. The problem Benavidez has is that he’s talented for his own good, and he’s not a huge star like Canelo.
That means that famous boxers like Caleb Plant and Jermall Charlo don’t want to share the ring with Benavidez because the risk of them losing is very high and the amount of money won’t be big.
In Plant’s case, he needed a win over Benavidez to help him try and get a rematch against Canelo last November, but given the high probability of him losing, he tried. against him.
Benavidez has talked about wanting to fight ‘regular’ 168-lb WBA champion David Morrell, who is arguably more talented than any of the super-middleweight contenders, including Canelo and Caleb Plant. So far, the Morrell fight hasn’t happened for Benavidez.
The 31-year-old Uzcategui has won his last three matches against a low-level opponent since losing Lionel Thompson in 2019 in a nasty failure. That same year, Uzcategui lost the IBF super middleweight belt first Caleb . Factory by a 12-round unanimous decision.
Uzcategui is ranked #7 WBA and has had recent wins against these three obscure fighters:
- Felipe Romero (21-21-1, 15 KOs)
- Jaime Hernandez Lopez (10-7, 4 KOs)
- Josue Obando (20-34-2, 15 KOs)
What a waste of time for former world champion Uzcategui who spent the last year fighting these lesser fighters.
The best victories of Uzcategui’s career were against Andre Dirrell, Matt Korobov and Julius Jackson. He briefly held the IBF 168-lb title after defeating Andre Dirrell in 2018, but then he lost the title to Caleb Plant in 2019. Since that bout, his career Uzcategui is going nowhere.
