Sources: Benavidez comes down with Covid-19, so Aug. 28 Showtime card is off

Was due to meet Uzcategui in super middleweight eliminator

Former two-time super middleweight world titlist David Benavidez has come down with Covid-19, which forced his upcoming fight with fellow former titlist Jose Uzcategui to be postponed, multiple sources told Fight Freaks Unite on Wednesday.

Benavidez, who is not vaccinated, according to one of the sources, and Uzcategui were scheduled to meet in a WBC 168-pound world title elimination fight in the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions tripleheader on Showtime on Aug. 28 at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, the home area of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns.

The winner of the fight would have moved a step closer to becoming one of the mandatory challengers for unified super middleweight world champion Canelo Alvarez.

Benavidez is just the latest unvaccinated top fighter to come down with Covid-19, leading to the postponement of a major fight — costing organizers millions of dollars — or a new fight having to be arranged on short notice.

The two most prominent examples are heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, who decided not to get his second dose of the vaccine and came down with the virus, which forced him to postpone his third fight with former titlist Deontay Wilder from July 24 to Oct. 9, and unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez, who got Covid-19 a week before he was supposed to make a mandatory defense against Australia’s George Kambosos Jr. on June 19. That fight has not been rescheduled but the IBF has ruled it must take place on or before Oct. 17.

It remains to be seen when the fight will be rescheduled, according to the sources.

The entire Benavidez-Uzcategui card is off, according to the sources, including a pair of 10-round bouts that were due to be part of the Showtime telecast.

Jose Benavidez Jr. (27-1, 18 KOs), 29, David’s older brother, was due to move up from welterweight to junior middleweight to face Francisco Emanuel Torres (17-3, 5 KOs), 31, of Argentina, in the co-feature in his first fight since recently buying out the remainder of his promotional contract with Top Rank. He hasn’t fought since welterweight titlist Terence Crawford knocked him out in the 12th round in October 2018.

Junior featherweight Carlos Castro (26-0, 11 KOs), 27, of Phoenix, looking to end a 13-month layoff, was due to fight former featherweight world title challenger Oscar Escandon (26-5, 18 KOs), 37, of Colombia, in the opener.

Benavidez, who is from Phoenix, was looking forward to a homecoming fight after having not boxed there since May 2015, when he won a preliminary bout by second-round knockout against Ricardo Campillo in a scheduled six-rounder at the same venue.

The 24-year-old Benavidez (24-0, 21 KOs), the big favorite in the fight, has twice been stripped of the WBC title, first for testing positive for cocaine in a random drug test in September 2018.

He would go on to reclaim the title by knocking out Anthony Dirrell, who had won the vacant belt during Benavidez’s suspension, in the ninth round in September 2019.

In August 2020, Benavidez was overweight for his first defense against Roamer Alexis Angulo and was stripped, so when he stopped Angulo in the 10th round the belt remained vacant.

He made 168 pounds for his next fight, an 11th-round stoppage of Ronald Ellis in March that set up his eliminator with Uzcategui.

The Venezuela-born, Mexico-based Uzcategui (31-4, 26 KOs), 30, lost his world title to Caleb Plant by decision in January 2019. Uzcategui has won two fights in a row since an upset 10-round decision loss to Lionell Thompson in December 2019.

Photo: Amanda Westcott/Showtime