David Morrell says he will make it “look easy” beating David Benavidez in two weeks from today on February 1st, in their 12-round headliner at light heavyweight.
The WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) views Benavidez as just a simple, “Fat” pressure fighter who walks forward, throwing punches, but no “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’ doesn’t have power. He’s a volume puncher 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 drain down 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 advantage is gone, his lack of punching power even more of a liability, and he no longer has the size to fall back on. He’s now fighting a guy just as big as him, Morrell, but with superior skills and talent, a true knockout artist. It doesn’t look good for Benavidez.
Morrell: Making It “Look Easy”
“Benavidez isn’t easy, but I’m going to make it look easy. They are two different things,” said Morrell to the Gloves Off episode 2. “Every time you come to the gym, work, work, work. It’s better to cry here than cry inside the ring at the fight.
“That’s the problem in this fight. Him and me too, we’re both guys who like to pressure,” said Morrell about the constant pressure that Benavidez applied to his last opponent, Oleksandr Gvozdyk in his debut at 175 last year on June 15th in Las Vegas. “Both guys like to come forward and pressure. Who is more strong? I know it’s me.
“Everybody says in his last fight he really didn’t have the power to knock out some people. He doesn’t have nothing. This is my real weight, 175,” said Morrell. Right now, I feel comfortable at this weight.”
Frame-wise, Benavidez is a light heavyweight and has been his entire career, but his power is more like a middleweight [160 lbs], and he’s getting hit a lot more than he did 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 is going to be very different for Benavidez at 175. He will fight killers like Morrell and face quality opposition for the first time in his long pro career. As a 12-year pro, Benavidez is like a prospect, stepping up for the first time but not being young physically.
Body Betrayal
Benavidez’s body has seen the wear and tear of a fighter who has been in the game for over a decade. All the wars in sparring have further worn him down. We’re seeing the effects now, with Benavidez breaking down with injuries left and right in his last fight.
That’s wear from a long career rearing it’s ugly head. He’s like an old car with 300,000 miles on the odometer. Yeah, you shine up the car, but it’s still an old car engine and transmission-wise. That’s how it is with Benavidez. A lot of mileage on him.
“I really believe I’m seeing a legend. He reminds me so much of a guy like Evander Holyfield, of a guy like Pernell Whitaker,” said trainer Ronnie Shields about Morrell. “The reason he reminds me of those guys is because of the way he works.
“I give Benavidez credit because he’s stepping in with him. He didn’t have to. It just shows you have fighters out there who want to fight the best. So, now he’s getting an opportunity,” said Shields.
Finally Stepping up
You have to give Benavidez credit for FINALLY stepping up in his twelfth year as a pro to take the fight against Morrell after being called out by him for two solid years. Benavidez has had a very long career, and, surprisingly, it’s taken him this long to start taking on the elite-level fighters rather than old, toothless, smaller guys that he’s built his entire 29-0 record on.
There’s a formula in this era of boxing where fighters create plastic records by fighting scrubs and then brag about themselves to try to get a big cash-out payday. Is Benavidez one of them?
He’s fought the same kind of guys as Edgar Berlanga, and it’s hard not to lump ‘The Mexican Monster’ in the same category. As the saying goes, ‘You are what you eat.’ That goes well in the pro game for manufactured fighters that create unbeaten records built 100% on beating tomato cans.
Benavidez has fought exclusively lower-level opposition, and he’s been a pro for almost 15 years. How do you not fight quality opposition, especially with a massive size advantage over everyone?
“What I see in Morrell is a lot of flaws that I can take advantage of,” said Benavidez. “He says he’s a better fighter than me because he’s from Cuba and he trained with Cubans, but that doesn’t mean anything. I grew up sparring monsters.
Both fighters have sparred with a lot of good opposition during their careers, but Benavidez shouldn’t see that as some kind of honor or war medal to pin on his chest. All fighters do that. Benavidez even mentions it as a sign of insecurity. The flaws that Benavidez sees in Morrell exist in his own game.
He’s projecting his weaknesses onto Morrell and failing to admit he’s even more vulnerable now than he was when he was draining down to fight smaller, older fighters at 168 to game the system. Benavidez is starting to physically break down now due to his long career in the game.
