LAS VEGAS – His son isn’t the only undefeated fighter on Jose Benavidez Sr.’s roster that the veteran trainer thinks Canelo Alvarez will avoid.

The patriarch of the Benavidez boxing family fired more shots at Alvarez after Diego Pacheco’s 12-round, unanimous-decision victory over Steven Nelson on Saturday night at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Pacheco is ranked third at super middleweight by The Ring, No. 1 by the WBO and No. 3 by the WBC, but Benavidez doesn’t think Alvarez would even consider defending those 168-pound championships against the tall, lanky Los Angeles native.

At 6-foot-4, the 23-year-old Pacheco (23-0, 18 KOs) stands eight inches taller than Alvarez. The developing contender is also 11 years younger than Alvarez, who is rated seventh among The Ring’s top 10, pound-for-pound.

The 34-year-old Alvarez, of course, is much more experienced against championship-caliber opposition than Pacheco. The Mexican icon has won world titles in four weight classes and has been one of the sport’s most bankable box office and pay-per-view attractions over the past 12 years.

Benavidez Sr. still believes Alvarez would circumvent what Benavidez believes is a risky proposition for a shorter, older champion who will probably battle IBF champion William Scull in his next fight May 3. If a heavily favored Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KOs) were to beat Cuba’s Scull (23-0, 9 KOs) in three months, he would advance to boxing’s biggest fight of 2025, a showdown with another four-division champion, Terence Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs), who is ranked No. 3 pound-for-pound by The Ring.

“You know, Canelo would never take a fight with Diego Pacheco,” Benavidez said during Pacheco’s post-fight press conference. “He’s strong, rangy, he uses his jab very well, super young, and he’s getting better and better and better. So, if Canelo’s here, you know, he’s ready. He’s ready to take that challenge. And I think that would be a great fight. But we’re ready for whatever. You know, I think [promoter] Eddie Hearn’s doing a great job, you know, taking him with all these fighters.

“And, you know, he’s doing a great job. We’re super happy with everything that’s happening. And we’re just gonna go back, continue to go back to fundamentals and keep learning and see. [Pacheco] made a couple of mistakes there that we’re gonna [work] on that and keep getting better.”

Nelson (20-1, 16 KOs) pushed Pacheco at times in a main event DAZN streamed, but he often had trouble connecting with effective punches when he was able to work his way inside. A resilient Nelson also fought through a cut over his left eye for eight-plus rounds.

Pacheco won their bout by the identical score of 117-111 according to judges Tim Cheatham, Max De Luca and David Sutherland.

Benavidez Sr. shifted his attention to a bigger fight the following Saturday night almost as soon as Pacheco stepped out of the ring after defeating Nelson, an Omaha, Nebraska native and one of Crawford’s closest friends. His younger son, light heavyweight contender David Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs), is scheduled to battle Cuban southpaw David Morrell Jr. (11-0, 9 KOs) in a Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view main event Saturday night that Amazon’s Prime Video will distribute from nearby T-Mobile Arena, a couple blocks away from The Cosmopolitan.

Keith Idec is a staff writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing.