David Benavidez says he will try to knock out “regular” WBA Light Heavyweight Champion David Morrell and “hurt him in every round” in their title fight in 40 days on February 1st on PBC on Prime Video PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Walking Morrell Down
Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) thinks he can “hurt” Cuban Morel (11-0, 9 KOs) and wants to see if he has the “heart” to press him. This could be a mistake for the ‘Mexican Monster’ Benavidez to try to take down Morel in this fight as this is arguably the biggest punch in the 175lb division. He can walk into something and get knocked out.
For most of the 28-year-old Benavidez’s career, he has competed in a division below his size, dropping down to compete at 168 instead of where he should be at 175. As such, fans have labeled him a ‘weight bully,’ and it’s hard to argue with that when you see him rehydrated throughout their struggles. It looked like a cruiser.
Morrell is about the same size as Benavidez, but with more power. He doesn’t carry a belly like he does because he maintains his weight between fights and doesn’t enjoy treats.
Morrell’s chin testing
“I definitely think I can hurt him. “I’m going to do my game plan as best as I can to try to hurt him as much as possible,” David Benavides said. Sean Zitteltalking about what his focus is for his bout against WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion David Morrell on February 1st.
“If a knockout comes, it will come. If not, it won’t. My game plan will be on him all night and I will literally try to hurt him every round. For him to give up, I don’t know. That is the question. I want to see if David Morrell really has that heart or if he has that dog in him.
“I’m going to try to hurt him every round, and we’ll see what happens.” For this fight, I feel very strong. All is well now. I’m injury free. I trained really well. “I’ve been training for a long time and I’m ready for this,” said Benavidez.
In Benavides’ debut at 175 against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, his striking didn’t affect him in their June 15 clash. He looked like an average puncher, and in that fight he ate a lot of hard punches from Gvozdik. Recently, Benavidez blamed his poor performance on a whole host of different injuries, which made him sound like the walking wounded for that fight.
David’s punches looked like they were thrown with the same power as when he fought at 168. The only difference was that he was fighting a guy the same size, and it had no effect. Benavidez’s injuries may be a sign that he is physically broken from a long career in the sport. He has been fighting for more than 10 years and is approaching thirty.
Fighters are usually done by that point in their career unless they are genetically special. For Benavidez to suffer, multiple injuries signal that he is reaching the end like normal fighters and is not one of the special ones.
Benavides’ excuses
“I am ready to excel in my career and accept the biggest challenges.” “I don’t want to be a hypocrite,” Benavides said of the perception that he was crying over Canelo Alvarez not fighting him, yet he avoided fighting Morel for two years.
Benavidez was a hypocrite because he didn’t want to fight Morello and did the same thing Canelo did to him. His excuse that he had bigger money fights available is the same excuse Canelo used for not fighting him. The reality is that Morel was too dangerous and Benavides didn’t want to lose.
“It’s not that I didn’t give him (Morell) a chance.” It was that Caleb (Plant) was a bigger fight than him. ‘Boo Boo’ (Demetrius Andrade) fights him off. Then when he got to 175, when I got there, he got right behind me. So it was perfect. He got his belt (VBA ‘regular’) and I got my belt (VBC provisional light heavyweight). That’s why I say now is the perfect time for this fight to happen,” said Benavidez.
Benavidez doesn’t say he’s taken other, less risky fights than those instead of facing Morrell. Benavidez has been called up by Cuban talent for over two years, and he’s been taking lighter fights, fighting these guys:
– David Lemieux
– Kyron Davies
– Ronald Ellis