David Benavidez says he will try to walk “regular” WBA lightweight champion David Morrell and “do it 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 wants to see if he has some “heart” by putting pressure on him. This could be a mistake for the “Mexican Monster” Benavidez to try to walk Morrell in this fight because this is probably the biggest puncher in the 175 lb division. He can walk into anything and get knocked down.
Through most of Benavidez’s career, the 28-year-old has competed in a division below his size, dropping to compete at 168 instead of where he should be at 175. As such, fans they labeled a “weight bully.” ” and it’s hard to argue against that when you see him rehydrated during his fights. He looks like a cruiserweight.
Morrell is about the same size as Benavidez but with more power. He doesn’t sport a Fury-esque belly like he does, as he maintains his weight between fights and doesn’t indulge in goodies.
Test Morrell’s chin
“I definitely think I can hurt him. I’m going to make my game plan to the best of my abilities to try to hurt him as much as possible,” said David Benavidez to Sean ZittelThey talk about what his focus is for his bout against WBA “regular” lightweight champion David Morrell on February 1st.
“If the knockout comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. My game plan is to be on him all night and, literally, try to hurt him every time. For him to give up, I don’t know No. 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 to hurt him every time, so we’ll see what happens. For this fight, I feel really strong. Everything feels good now. I’m injury-free. I’ve been training really well. I’ve been training for a long time , and I’m just ready for it,” Benavidez said.
In Benavidez’s debut at 175 against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, his punches had no effect on him in their June 15 bout. He looked like a medium volume puncher, and he ate a lot of hard shots from Gvozdyk in that fight. Recently, Benavidez has blamed his lackluster performance on a host of different injuries, making him sound like the walking wounded for that fight.
David’s punches seemed to be thrown with the same power as when he fought at 168. The only difference was that he was fighting a man of the same size, and it had no effect. Benavidez’s injuries could be a sign that he is breaking down physically from a long career in the sport. He has been fighting for over 10 years and is approaching 30.
Fighters are usually done by that point in their career, unless they are genetically special. For Benavidez to suffer, many injuries indicate that he reaches the end like normal fighters and is not one of the special ones.
Benavidez’s apology
“I’m ready to excel in my career and get the biggest challenges here. I don’t want to be a hypocrite,” said Benavidez on the perception of him crying for Canelo Alvarez who didn’t fight, and he also has dodged a fight against Morrell for two years.
Benavidez was a hypocrite because he didn’t want to fight Morrell and did the same thing Canelo was with him. His excuse that he had bigger money fights available to him is the same excuse that Canelo used to not fight. 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) fights than him. Then, he got up to 175, when I went up, he came right behind me. So, he had his belt (WBA ‘regular’), and I had my belt (WBC interim). That’s why I say, now it is perfect time to make this fight happen,” said Benavidez.
Benavidez doesn’t say he would have taken other less risky fights than those instead of facing Morrell. Benavidez had been called by the Cuban talent for more than two years, and he was taking easier fights, fighting these guys:
-David Lemieux
– Kyron Davis
– Ronald Ellis
