Is Morrell’s Power Enough? Trainer Quiz Fighter’s Ring IQ For Benavidez Clash
Trainer Stephen Edwards feels that David Morrell does not have the ring IQ to defeat WBC interim light heavyweight champion David Benavidez in their fight on February 1.
Stephen thinks ‘regular’ WBA 175 lb champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) relies too much on his power and explosiveness and doesn’t have a bag of tricks to rely on if that doesn’t work.
Edwards notes that Morrell had problems in his fight with Radivoje Kalajdzic on August 3rd in his debut at 175, but he was not in danger of losing. Indeed, Morrell dominated every round of the fight, but occasionally he took some big shots from Hot Rod, who knows how to hit.
This guy has better power than Benavidez, and Morrell had to be careful at times. In particular, he was nailing Hot Rod at will with hard shots and hurt him a few times.
Stephen faced ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) when he defeated his fighter Caleb Plant last year on March 25, 2023, and it didn’t go well for them. He came away from that fight impressed with Benavidez.
Plant was weak and undersized for Benavidez, who looked like a cruiserweight inside the ring in that fight,
Morrell vs. Benavidez will headline February 1st on PBC on Prime Video PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. This is Benavidez’s first fight in 11 years against someone in a 50-50 fight with a knockout punch.
The closest he ever 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 15. Benavidez got tired early in that fight and was beaten by Gvozdyk from the 7th to 12th round.
“This is a fight that David Morrell can win, but I don’t know if he will,” said Stephen Edwards at Fighthype about David Benavidez’s fight with David Morrell on February 1. “He had issues with ‘Hot Rod,’ but he wasn’t giving up.
“There is a difference when you go back to your corner, you don’t know if you have woken up. I have to see what his adjustment is like if he doesn’t win the fight or another guy puts pressure on his mind when he starts to doubt a little.
“I’m very impressed with David Morrell, but he relies on his strength, his strength, and his size. He is too big to fight at 168. He is a great man. I’m impressed with him, but most of the guys he’s fought against have been so much younger than him that he doesn’t have to go into his bag of tricks to rely on other things like his IQ.
Like Benavidez, Morrell was the biggest in the 168-lb division, but he doesn’t fight at 175. Both are fighting smaller fighters at super middleweight. Morrell wasn’t the only one 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,” said Edwarda, talking about Morrell’s IQ ring. “I will choose David Benavidez. I think his IQ is very low. His defense is limited. People say it’s easy to beat, but if you fight like you’re fighting, you’ll get beat if you walk up to the guy. Plus, he’s a big guy, but he packs a lot of punches.
“He’s really good at boxing. He can argue. He is very aware of his defense. He is not there to let his head get cut off all over the place. If you see him being beaten, look at him very closely. Even if he is beaten, his hands are raised. Therefore, the punches will have to go through his gloves. He steals a lot of power,” Edwards said of Benavidez.
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