David Benavidez says he’s going to try and walk WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion David Morrell down and “hurt him in every round” in their headliner 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” the Cuban Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs), and he wants to see if he has any “heart” by putting pressure on him. This could be a mistake for the ‘Mexican Monster’ Benavidez to try and walk Morrell down in this fight because this is arguably the biggest puncher in the 175-lb division. He may walk into something and get knocked out.
Through most of the 28-year-old Benavidez’s career, he’s been competing in a division below his size, draining down to compete at 168 instead of being where he should be at 175. As such, fans have labeled him a ‘weight bully,’ and it’s hard to argue against that when seeing him rehydrated during his fights. He’s resembled a cruiserweight.
Morrell is about the same size as Benavidez but with more power. He doesn’t sport a Fury-esque belly like him, as he keeps his weight down between fights and doesn’t indulge in goodies.
Testing Morrell’s Chin
“I definitely do think I can hurt him. I’m going to do my game plan to the best of my abilities to try and hurt him as much as possible,” said David Benavidez to Sean Zittel, talking about what his focus is for his clash against WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion David Morrell on February 1st.
“If the knockout comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. My game plan is going to be on him all night and literally try to hurt him every round. For him giving up, I don’t know. That’s 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 and hurt him every round, so we’re going to see what happens. For this fight, I feel really strong. Everything feels good right now. I’m injury-free. I’ve been training really good. I’ve been training for a long time, and I’m just ready for this,” said Benavidez.
In Benavidez’s debut at 175 against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, his punches at no effect on him in their clash on June 15th. He looked like an average volume puncher, and he ate a lot of hard shots from Gvozdyk in that fight. Recently, Benavidez has blamed his poor performance on a whole host of different injuries, making himself sound like a walking wounded for that battle.
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 could be a sign that he’s physically breaking down from a long career in the sport. He’s been fighting for over 10 years and is approaching 30.
Fighters usually are done by that point in their careers unless they’re genetically special. For Benavidez to suffer, multiple injuries signal that he’s reaching the end like normal fighters and isn’t one of the special ones.
Benavidez’s Excuses
“I’m ready to excel in my career and get the biggest challenges out there. I don’t want to be a hypocrite,” said Benavidez about the perception of him crying over Canelo Alvarez not fighting him, and yet he’d been dodging a fight against Morrell for two years.
Benavidez was a hypocrite because he didn’t want to fight Morrell and was doing the same thing Canelo was with him. His excuse that he had bigger money fights available to him is the same excuse Canelo used for not fighting him. The reality is that Morrell was too dangerous, and Benavidez didn’t want to lose.
“It wasn’t that I wasn’t giving him [Morrell] the opportunity. It was that Caleb [Plant] was a bigger fight than him. ‘Boo Boo’ [Demetrius Andrade] fight than him. Then, coming up to 175, when I came up, he came up right behind me. So, it was perfect. He got his belt [WBA ‘regular’], and I got my belt [WBC interim light heavyweight]. That’s why I’m saying, now is the perfect time to make this fight happen,” said Benavidez.
Benavidez isn’t saying that he was taking other less risky fights than those instead of facing Morrell. Benavidez had been getting called out by the Cuban talent for over two years, and he was taking easier fights, fighting these guys:
– David Lemieux
– Kyrone Davis
– Ronald Ellis