Zab Judah and Anthony Dirrell both feel that WBC interim light heavyweight champion David Benavidez has too much experience for David Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) and will defeat him in their 12-round headliner fight on February 1st at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
12 Years of Damage: The Toll It’s Taken
The wear & tear of a long, grueling 12-year career is starting to show on the ‘Mexican Monster’ Benavidez.
Although he’s young at 28, he physically looks much older, like a person in his mid-to-late 30s, due to the punishment he’s received. We’re seeing that now, with him entering fights with multiple injuries, stamina problems, and slowed reflexes.
In Benavidez’s last fight, his head resembled a doorstop with the shots he was getting hit with by Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15th.
He wasn’t blocking anything and getting hit at will by Gvozdyk. If the Ukrainian fighter hadn’t been recently retired for four years, he would have likely knocked Benavidez out. That was hard to watch. Granted, it was his first fight at 175, but it was obvious that David had reached his ceiling. It was a combination of age and fighting where he should have been all along.
Weight Bully
People criticize Benavidez for fighting outside of his natural weight class, competing at 168 rather than 175. Although he’s been young enough to dehydrate down in weight, he likely wouldn’t have been able to do this if there had been strict 10-lb rehydration limits to prevent him from blowing up. In other words, Benavidez has been a weight bully, and Judah and Dirrell fail to mention that.
Judah thinks Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) will knockout Morrell early, using his volume punching. He crowds his opponents and unloads nonstop punches. That’s what he did with Dirrell and tried to do with his last opponent, Oleksandr Gvozdyk. It didn’t work in that case.
“I believe that fight is going four rounds. David Benavidez by knockout,” said Zab Judah to MillCity Boxing, picking Benavidez to stop David Morrell on February 1st. “David comes in round one.
“I think it’s going to go longer than that,” said Anthony Dirrell. “David [Benavidez] doesn’t have the one punch [power]. It’s the accumulation. David has some pop, but I don’t see the one-punch knockout.
“David Morrell can last a little bit. Being from Cuba, he can hit, too. Everyone knows Cubans are made to hit. If I have to lean one way, it’s David Benavidez 100% because of his resume. We haven’t seen Morrell tested. We’ve seen David tested on multiple occasions.
“We haven’t seen Morrell tested in a big old fight, a magnitude like this. This fight, everybody is going to want to see this fight. It depends on how Morrell is going to fight,” said Dirrell when asked if Morrell can go the 12-round distance with Benavidez.
Dirrell has first-hand experience fighting Benavidez on September 28, 2019, and was stopped in the ninth round on a cut. He did stun him twice with left hooks but couldn’t finish him. Benavidez was much bigger than Dirrell and looked like a light-heavyweight
Past-Their-Prime Fighters
We haven’t seen Benavidez tested in a big fight, either. It’s not just Morrell. Dirrell was in his mid-30s when he fought Benavidez, and well, his prime. Also, he was a lot smaller, going up against the light, heavyweight-sized Mexican Monster.
Morrell has fought better guys in the amateur ranks than Benavidez has as a pro. It’s not even close. Morrell has the experience advantage against quality opposition. The best fighters Benavidez fought were mainly older, over-the-hill fighters like these guys:
– Demetrius Andrade: 36
– Oleksandr Gvozdyk: 37
– David Lemieux: 35
– Roamer Alexis Angulo: 40
Caleb Plant wasn’t old when he fought Benavidez in 2023, but Canelo Alvarez had already knocked him out in 2021. He had no power. That’s the only younger world-class fighter that Benavidez has beaten. The rest of them have been old.
“David, it’s the accumulation that is going to get to him [Morrell]. He’s got some pop. Every punch, you’re going to feel it. I think Morrell is going to put up a fight,” said Dirrell.
“Do you think David Morrell can knock out David Benavidez?” said Judah.
“Benavidez can take a hit, though,” said Dirrell. “We’ve never really seen Benavidez hurt. I never seen it. He got dropped, but I think it was a flash knockdown [against Ronald Gavril on September 8, 2017, in their first fight. He was a little too aggressive, but that’s Benavidez.”
If Morrell is forced into a war on the inside, he’s got a chance to knock out Benavidez because he’s a lot stronger and bigger than the guys he’s been fighting at 168. Gvozdyk couldn’t fight on the inside. He mostly lit up Benavidez from the outside after he gassed out in the second half of the fight. Again, Dirrell had Benavidez hurt, and was a lot smaller.
Morrell’s Youthful Advantage
“I think he calmed down a little bit. He’s a good counter-puncher. So, blocking and coming back with his own counter. I think it’ll be a good fight. I think it’ll be a chess match at first. Then it’ll heat up in the middle of the rounds,” said Dirrell.
“I see it going four rounds,” said Judah.
“No, I don’t see Morrell banging it out with him like that,” said Dirrell. “I see him moving, getting his shots in, but be on the move. I think he’s going to mix it up at times because of the blood, but I don’t see a mix-up like that.”
Morrell, 26, is two years younger than Benavidez but is more youthful and has that freshness factor going for him. He hasn’t pounded for 12 years in the pro ranks like Benavidez, and that shows. So, Judah and Dirrell are looking at the experience factor as a positive rather than as a major negative for the Mexican Monster Benavidez. When it’s early in a fighter’s career, experience is important, but not when a guy has been in the game since 2013. Then it’s a negative.
“So, you’re saying that Morrell has to take him into the deeper waters for him to win?” said Judah.
“You have to, but Benavidez gets stronger as it goes, too, though. We got to see what Morrell’s condition is going into the fight,” said Dirrell. “I see David in Vegas right now. If you don’t go to Vegas a few weeks before, it’s over.”
