David Morrell says interim WBC lightweight champion David Benavidez won’t be able to fight offensively against him on February 1st because he won’t let him.
(Credit: Jacob De Leon / Team Morrell)
Benavidez’s risky style
Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) says he will neutralize Benavidez’s offense by hitting him hard with counters, making him cautious about the opener as usual. If Benavidez chooses to fight in his normal, reckless way, Morrell warns, it will be a mistake he will live to regret.
Benavidez-Morrell will headline in 26 days on PBC on Prime Video PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Morrell, 26, will defend his WBA “regular” lightweight title against 28-year-old “Mexican Monster” Benavidez.
It will be interesting to see how much punishment Benavidez can absorb in this fight before he goes down. If he doesn’t change his ultra-aggressive fighting style for this fight, he will be defeated for sure by Morrell because this guy is one of the biggest punchers in the 175-lb division. He has one punch power, and can KO Benavidez if he fights like a wild man like he usually does.
“This is all part of the show. I don’t know if Benavidez has tried twisted psychological warfare on anyone else in the past. I’m a strong mind and focused on February 1,” said David Morrell to Sean Zittel. “I’m not going to play any mind games.
“Put your money where your mouth is. It’s one thing to say you’re going to do it, but it’s another thing to get in the ring to actually do it,” said Morrell, reacting to being told that Benavidez says that he will apply non-stop pressure at every turn.
“Let’s see if he is able to do everything he says he wants to do. This will be a completely different fight than his last fight. He will not be able to be as offensive and aggressive as he has been because this will not be not that kind of fight,” Morrell said.
Inside
Benavidez knows only one fighting style: press his opponents inside. Although he is 6’2″ tall, he has no outside game. He is 100% an internal and one-dimensional fighter, so he has no choice but to pressure. If the fight is made from a distance, Morrell will cook him.
The power difference could sink Benavidez because he’s just a volume puncher and can’t generate pop in his punches. It is a product of his weak upper body. He was not blessed with strength like Morrell or Artur Beterbiev. Inside, Morrell is much more powerful and able to knock down his opponents.
Watching what he did to Radivoje Kalajdzic in the third round of their fight last August was scary. Kalajdzic crowded Morrell, hoping to get the best of him inside. Morrell then unleashed a flurry of head shots, all with knockout power, and had Kalajdzic reeling.
Benavidez doesn’t possess any kind of power inside, and he could get into trouble when trying to fight Morrell up close. Again, Benavidez has no choice but to fight inside because he can’t throw longer punches for some reason. It could be some physical problem with his body or a bad experience he had in the past. Whatever it is, you can’t fight it out.
“I’m not going to be the type of opponent that’s going to be right around the corner to pick me up,” Morrell said. “I have to do my things, and with that, I have to adjust. It will not be just a free-for-all for him where he will be able to put pressure on me and think me in the way that he has caught other opponents in the past
Benavidez pinned opponents who were smaller than him against the ropes in the past when he was campaigning at 168. He was a lightweight who fought at super middleweight for a weight and size advantage.
When he finally moved up to 175 last summer against former WBC champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk, he couldn’t dominate him on the inside like he did against his smaller foes at 168. That’s why he seemed so average and no better than any fringe contender in the. division He didn’t look like the top five lightweights.
Morrell’s Counterstrategy
“I can say 100% that I can counter-punch, fight on the back foot for whatever is required of me,” Morrell said. “He can be as aggressive as he wants, but it’s better not to make a mistake because at this level, with the type of opponent they are, if he makes a mistake or several mistakes, there will be a high price for him to pay,” Morrell said.
Benavidez was hit hard by Caleb Plant, hurt twice by Anthony Dirrell, nailed often by Demetrius Andrade, and dropped by Ronald Gavril. He leaves himself open for counter-shots with his aggressive volume-punching and his decision to fight up close. While the style worked for him, it also resulted in him being hit a lot.
Morrell’s punching power might be too much for Benavidez in the end, and we’ll likely see a knockout in the sixth round. Benavidez will fight like a wild man and will be taken by Morrell.
