Trainer Stephen Edwards feels David Morrell does not possess the ring IQ to defeat interim WBC lightweight champion David Benavidez in their February 1 fight.
Stephen thinks WBA “regular” 175lb champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) relies too much on his power and explosiveness and doesn’t have a lot of tricks he can rely on if it doesn’t work.
Edwards notes that Morrell struggled in his August 3 fight against Radivoje Kalajdzic in his debut at 175, but was never in danger of losing. Indeed, Morrell dominated every round of the fight, but occasionally took big shots from Hot Rod, who can punch.
This guy has better power than Benavidez, and Morrell had to be careful at times. Mostly, he was hitting Hot Rod at will with hard shots and had hurt him several times.
Stephen defeated “The Mexican Monster” Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) when he defeated his fighter Caleb Plant last year on March 25, 2023, and it did not work out well for them. He came away from that fight impressed with Benavidez.
The plant was too weak and small for Benavidez, who looked like a cruiserweight in the ring in that fight,
Morrell vs. Benavidez headlines Feb. 1 on PBC on Prime Video PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. This is the first fight of Benavidez’s 11-year career where he faces someone in a 50-50 fight who has a chance to beat him.
The closest he came to an opponent who had a chance to beat him was in his last fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk in his debut at 175 on June 15th. Benavidez got tired early in that fight and was really hammered by Gvozdyk from rounds 7-12.
“This is a fight that David Morrell can win, but I don’t know if he will win,” said Stephen Edwards Fighthype on the David Benavidez vs. David Morrell fight on February 1st. “He had problems with ‘Hot Rod,’ but he wasn’t lost.
“There is a difference when you return to your corner, and you don’t know if you are. I have to see how his adjustments are when he is not winning the fight or when the other guy puts mental pressure on him where he is starting to create some doubt.
“I’m very impressed with David Morrell, but he relies on his strength, his strength and his size. He’s too big to be fighting at 168. He’s a big man. I’m very impressed with him, but a lot of the guys that he was fighting were much smaller than him where he didn’t need to go into his bag of tricks to rely on other things like his IQ.
Like Benavidez, Morrell was too big for the 168 lb division, but is not fighting at 175. Both were fighting smaller fighters at super middleweight. It wasn’t just Morrell who fought a lot of smaller guys. Benavidez was always bigger than his opponents during the 11 years he fought at 168.
“I’m not saying he doesn’t have it, but I haven’t seen it yet,” Edwarda said about Morrell’s ring IQ. “I’m going to pick David Benavidez. I think his IQ is very underrated. His defense is underrated. People say he’s easy to hit, but when he fights like he fights, you’ve got to be hit when you go to a man. Besides, he’s a big guy, but he takes a lot of punches.
“He’s really good at punching you. He can counterpunch. He’s very aware of his defense. He’s not here to let his head hit all over the place. When you see him hit, watch him really close. Even though he’s hit, his hands are up. So, the punches have to go through his gloves. That’s a lot of power,” Edwards said of Benavidez.
