David Morrell says he will “look easy” beating David Benavidez in two weeks from today, February 1, in their 12-round light heavyweight headliner.
WBA ‘regular’ welterweight champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) sees Benavidez as a simple, “fat” pressure fighter who walks forward, throws punches but lacks “power” in his punches. He says he knows he’s stronger than Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs), which goes without saying.
Benavidez’s lack of power
The ‘Mexican Monster’ has no power. He is a big batsman who thrived during the first 11 years of his career when he was a big fish in a small pond at 168.
Like many younger fighters, Benavidez could wear himself out to fight in a division well below his body size. Early in his career we saw the same thing with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Now that Benavidez is at 175, his edge is gone, his lack of punching power is an even bigger flaw, and he no longer has the size to rely on. Now he’s fighting a guy just as big as him, Morrell, but with superior skills and talent, a true knockout. It’s not looking good for Benavidez.
Morrell: Make it “look easy”
“Benavidez is not easy, but I will make it look easy. Those are two different things,” Morrell said Take off your gloves episode 2. “Every time you come to the gym, work, work, work. Crying here is better than crying in the ring at a fight.
“That’s the problem in this fight. He and I, we’re both guys who like to put pressure on,” Morrell said of the constant pressure Benavidez applied to his last opponent, Oleksandr Gvozdyk in his debut at 175 last June 15 in Las Vegas. “Both guys like to step up and apply pressure. Who is stronger? I know it’s me.
“Everyone says that in his last fight he really didn’t have the power to knock some people out. He has nothing. This is my real weight, 175,” Morrell said. I feel comfortable at this weight right now.”
Frame-wise, Benavidez is a light heavyweight and has been for his entire career, but his strength is more like a middleweight [160 lbs]and he’s taking a lot more punches than when he was fighting at 168. In Benavidez’s debut at 175 against former WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk, he took a career’s worth of punishment in that contest.
Life will be very different for Benavidez at 175 years old. He will be fighting killers like Morrell and facing a quality opponent for the first time in his long professional career. As a 12-year pro, Benavidez is like a prospect, stepping up for the first time, but he’s not physically young.
Betrayal of the body
Benavidez’s body is as worn as a fighter who has been in the game for over a decade. All the sparring wars wore him down even more. Now we’re seeing the effects, with Benavidez coming down with injuries left and right in his last fight.
It’s the wear and tear of a long career rearing its ugly head. He is like an old car with 300,000 miles on the odometer. Yes, you’ve spruced up the car, but it’s still an old engine and transmission. That’s how it is with Benavidez. Lots of mileage on it.
“I really believe I’m seeing a legend. He reminds me so much of a guy like Evander Holyfield, a guy like Pernell Whitaker,” coach Ronnie Shields said of Morrell. “The reason he reminds me of those guys is the way he works.
“I give credit to Benavidez for stepping on him. He didn’t have to. It just shows that you have fighters who want to fight their best. So now he’s getting a chance,” Shields said.
Final boost
You have to give Benavidez credit for FINALLY stepping up in his twelfth year as a pro to fight Morrell after being called out by him for two full years. Benavidez has had a very long career, and surprisingly, it took him this long to start fighting elite-level fighters instead of the old, toothless, shorter guys he built his entire 29-0 record around.
In this era of boxing, there is a formula where fighters create plastic plates fighting the scrubs and then flaunting themselves to try and get the big payday. Is Benavidez one of them?
He fought the same guys as Edgar Berlanga, and it’s hard not to put the ‘Mexican Monster’ in the same category. As they say, ‘You are what you eat’. That goes well in the professional game for produced fighters which create unbeaten records built 100% on beating cans of tomatoes.
Benavidez has fought exclusively against lower level opposition and has been a pro for almost 15 years. How can you not fight against quality opposition, especially with a huge size advantage over everyone?
“What I see with Morrell is a lot of flaws that I can exploit,” Benavidez said. “He says he’s a better fighter than me because he’s from Cuba and trained with Cubans, but that doesn’t mean anything. I grew up sparring with monsters.
Both fighters have sparred a lot of good opponents throughout their careers, but Benavidez shouldn’t see this as some sort of honor or war medal to pin on his chest. All fighters do it. Benavidez even mentions it as a sign of insecurity. The flaws Benavidez sees in Morrell also exist in his game.
He is designing his weaknesses on Morrell and his failure to admit that he’s even more vulnerable now than he was when he wore himself down to fight smaller, older fighters at 168 to fight the system. Benavidez is now starting to break down physically from his long career in the game.
