The final punch stats showed David Benavidez landing 59 more punches than David Morrell in their 12-round contest, but the Cuban’s shots were more powerful and damaging. Benavidez won the fight by a 12-round unanimous decision. The scores were 115-111 x 2 and 118-108. Most fans saw it as a razor-close outcome, with Benavidez edging it.
Monster To Mortal
The Ecuadoran/Mexican Monster’s face was patched together at the end, swollen and bruised. Morrell’s punches made a mess of Benavidez’s face. He resembled a monster in real terms. The only thing that was missing were bolts on his neck.
Punch Stats
- Benavidez – 224 of 553 shots for a 40.5% connect rate
- Morrell – 165 of 601 punches for 27.5%
The shots that Morrell was hitting him with had him close to being knocked out in the 11th round after he dropped the American hard on the canvas. That point deduction for Morrell at the end of the 11th saved Benavidez’s hide because it interrupted the flow of the contest. It also gave him time to recover from the beating he’d taken in that round from the Cuban talent.
Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) was hurt several times by Morrell (11-1, 8 KOs) and knocked down in the 11th round. ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez won the fight by a twelve-round unanimous decision, but his stock plummeted from the performance.
Benavidez’s Delusions
“I’m excited to keep putting on great fights, filling arenas, calling out the best guys,” Benavidez said after his fight with David Morrell. “I’ve evolved as a fighter. I’m becoming my own character.
“I’ll be the face of boxing soon, talking over the sport,” Benavidez continued. “Did you see how I landed those uppercuts? Punched his left hand out of the way to land the uppercuts.”
Benavidez sounded deluded after the fight, seeing a future that clearly doesn’t exist. He’s NOT going to be the ‘Face of Boxing’ with that kind of performance. If anything, he’s going to be on skidrow soon, trying to pick up the pieces of his career.
Power Problems Persist
Morrell showed last night that Benavidez lacks the pop in his punches to beat the best in the 175-lb division, and he’ll come undone when he faces the winner of the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 rematch.
This was the second fight in a row that Benavidez showed a lack of power and stamina issues. We’d seen the same thing from him in his fight last June against Oleksandr Gvozdyk in Las Vegas.
Benavidez had blamed his poor performance and lack of power on having two injured hands. What was his excuse for how he performed against Morrell? There is none. He just can’t punch for the 175-lb division and has power the power of a typical 154-pounder.
There are guys in that division that can hit harder than Benavidez, like Bakhram Murtazaliev, Serhii Bohachuk, and Vergil Ortiz Jr.
