By Dan Ambrose: Former super middleweight champion David Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) and Jose Uzcategui (32-4, 27 KOs) are finalizing a deal for them to battle in January.
Benavidez, 25, and Uzcategui had been scheduled to battle last November, but unfortunately, Jose failed a drug test for the banned substance rEPO.
Rather than interim WBC 168-lb champion Benavidez moving on, his promoters have decided to reschedule the fight with Uzcategui, according to Mike Coppinger of ESPN.
Benavidez needs a victory over Uzcategui to keep the pressure on undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez to fight him.
Interestingly, the World Boxing Council has been taking its time ordering Canelo to defend against Benavidez despite him being mandatory for the WBC belt since last year.
Boxing fans aren’t too happy at learning that Benavidez is facing Uzcategui next rather than a higher-ranked contender in the division. The problem that Benavidez has is he’s talented for his own good, and he’s not a massive star like Canelo.
What that means is that popular fighters like Caleb Plant and Jermall Charlo aren’t eager to share the ring with Benavidez because the risk of them losing is high, and the money won’t be huge.
In Plant’s case, he needs a victory over Benavidez to help him try and get a rematch with Canelo last November, but given the high possibility of him losing, he’s been dragging his feet about fighting him.
Benavidez has talked of wanting to fight WBA ‘regular’ 168-lb champion David Morrell, who is arguably more talented than any of the super middleweights, including Canelo and Caleb Plant. Thus far, the Morrell fight hasn’t happened for Benavidez yet.
The 31-year-old Uzcategui has won his last three against low-level opposition since losing Lionel Thompson in 2019 in an upset defeat. In that same year, Uzcategui lost his IBF super middleweight title against Caleb Plant by a 12 round unanimous decision.
Uzcategui is ranked #7 WBA, and has recent wins over 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)
It’s a waste of time for the ex-world champion Uzcategui to have devoted the last year fighting these lesser fighters.
Uzcategui’s best career wins have come against Andre Dirrell, Matt Korobov, and Julius Jackson. He briefly held the IBF 168-lb title after beating Andre Dirrell in 2018, but then he lost the belt to Caleb Plant in 2019. Since that fight, Uzcategui’s career has been going nowhere.
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