Zab Judah and Anthony Dirrell both feel that interim WBC lightweight champion David Benavidez has too much experience for David Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) and defeated him in their 12-round headline fight on February 1 at the T-Mobile Arena. in Las Vegas.
12 years of damage: the toll is taken
The wear and tear of a long and grueling 12-year career is starting to show on the “Mexican Monster” Benavidez. We see the beginning of the break.
Although he is young at 28, physically he looks much older, like a person in his mid to late 30s, because of the punishment he received. We see that now, with him entering combat with multiple injuries, endurance issues and slowed reflexes.
In Benavidez’s last fight, his head looked like a door stop with the blows he was hit by Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15.
He was not blocking anything and was hit at will by Gvozdyk. If the Ukrainian fighter hadn’t been recently retired from four years, he probably would have knocked out Benavidez. It 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 it should have always been.
Weight Bully?
People criticize Benavidez for fighting out of his natural weight class, competing at 168 rather than 175. Although he was young enough to dehydrate in weight, he probably would not have been able to do this if there had been a tight rehydration of 10 lbs. the limits to prevent it from spreading. In other words, Benavidez was a weight bully, and Judah and Dirrell did not mention it.
Judah thinks Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) will wear down Morrell early, using his punch volume. He takes on his opponents and unloads punches non-stop. That’s what he did with Dirrell and tried to do with his latest opponent, Oleksandr Gvozdyk. It didn’t work in this case.
“I believe that the fight will take four rounds. David Benavidez by knockout,” said Zab Judah to MillCity Boxingpicks Benavidez to stop David Morrell on February 1st. “David comes in the first round.
“I think it’s going to go longer than that,” Anthony Dirrell said. “David (Benavidez) doesn’t have one punch (power). It’s the buildup. David has a little pop, but I don’t see the one-punch knockout.
“David Morrell can take a while. Being from Cuba, he can also hit. Everyone knows that 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 try. We’ve seen David try on several occasions.
“We haven’t seen Morrell try in a big fight before, a magnitude like this. This fight, everybody wants to see this fight. It depends on how Morrell is going to fight,” said Dirrell when asked if Morrell can go the distance of 12 times with Benavidez.
Dirrell has first-hand experience fighting Benavidez on September 28, 2019, and was stopped in the ninth round on a cut. He stunned him twice with left hooks, but he couldn’t finish. Benavidez was much bigger than Dirrell and looked like a lightweight
Past-Their-Prime Fighters
We haven’t seen Benavidez try it in a big fight. It’s not just Morrell. Dirrell was in his mid-30s when he fought Benavidez, and well, his first. Also, he was much smaller, going up against the light and heavyweight Mexican monster.
Morrell has fought better in the amateur ranks than Benavidez has as a pro. It’s not even close. Morrell has the advantage of experience against quality opposition. The best fighters that Benavidez fought were mainly older, over the hill fighters like these guys:
– Demetrius Andrade: 36
– Oleksandr Gvozdyk: 37
– David Lemieux: 35 years old
– Roamer Alexis Angulo: 40
Caleb Plant was not old when he fought Benavidez in 2023, but Canelo Alvarez had already knocked him out in 2021. He had no power. He is the only youngest fighter in the world that Benavidez has beaten. The rest were old.
“David, it’s the buildup that’s 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,” Dirrell said.
“Do you think David Morrell can knock out David Benavidez?” said Judas.
“Benavidez can take a hit, though,” Dirrell said. “We’ve never really seen Benavidez hurt. I’ve never seen it. He was knocked down, but I think it was a lightning strike (against Ronald Gavril on September 8, 2017, in his first fight. He was a little aggressive, but that’s Benavidez “.
If Morrell is forced into an inside war, he has a chance to knock out Benavidez because he’s a lot stronger and bigger than the guys he’s fought at 168. Gvozdyk couldn’t fight inside. He especially lit up Benavidez from the outside after he gassed in the second half of the fight. Again, Dirrell had hurt Benavidez, and he was much smaller.
Morrell’s Youth Advantage
“I think he calmed down a little bit. He’s a good counter-puncher. So, he’s going to block and come back with his own counter. I think it’s going to be a good fight. I think it’s going to be a chess match at first. Then he’s going to heat up in the middle of the shifts,” Dirrell said.
“I see it goes four rounds,” Judah said.
“No, I don’t see Morrell messing with him like that,” said Dirrell. “I see him moving, landing his shots, but be on the move. I think he’s going to mix it up sometimes because of the blood, but I don’t see a mix like that.”
Morrell, 26, is two years younger than Benavidez, but he’s younger and has that coolness factor to him. He hasn’t fought for 12 years in the pro ranks like Benavidez, and it shows. So, Judah and Dirrell look at the experience factor as a positive rather than a major negative for Mexican Monster Benavidez. When it’s early in the career of a fighter, experience is important, but not when a man has been in the game since 2013. So it’s a negative.
“So you’re saying that Morrell has to take it into deeper waters for him to win?” said Judas.
“You have to, but Benavidez is getting stronger as he goes, too. We’ll see what Morrell’s condition is going to be in the fight,” said Dirrell. “I’m seeing David in Vegas right now. If you don’t go to Vegas a few weeks early, it’s over.”
