David Benavidez says he will use “everything” Cuban David Morrell said about him to “fuel” his fire when they meet on February 1st in their light heavyweight match on PBC on Prime Video PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. .
WBA ‘regular’ champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) recently revealed the obvious, saying that Benavidez has been avoiding him since 2022 and that “fat chicken” and not the tough ‘Mexican Monster’ guy he tries to make fans think he is. Morrell sees Benavidez as a “Fake” Poser, and a “Chicken” at that.
Losing Control?
“When I enter the ring, I try to do a lot of damage because if I don’t get it, they try to get me. So, I take this very seriously,” David Benavidez told Miami Hustle about his fight with David Morrell on February 1.
“I feel like every fighter I get in the ring with is trying to take the food off my plate, and I’m not going to let that happen. David Morrell has been talking s*** for a while. He tries to say he doesn’t. He kept my name out of his mouth.
“He thought I wouldn’t fight. So when we agreed to fight, then he tried to pretend he wasn’t talking s*** and didn’t say anything about me. Everything he said about me was used to escalate the fight,” said Benavidez about Morrell.
It sounds like Benavidez will fight with anger and emotion against Morrell and put himself in a position to get caught by one of Morrell’s big guns. Here’s Benavidez’s problem. He has a hot head and has an anger problem.
It may be the reason why he imitated and pushed Morrell when he refused to shake his head during their press exercise on December 17th in Miami. He could not bear the humiliation of his attempt to shake Morrell’s hand being rejected. So, he shoved him. He was lucky Morrell didn’t brain him with his ‘standard’ heavy WBA belt which he threw at him in response because he could have been cut to ribbons if it had tagged him on the head.
Fighting aggressively against a calm warrior like Morrell, whose technical skills have been honed from years in Cuba’s elite team, is a mistake.
If Benavidez fights like a wild man against Morrell, he will be knocked out. The young man has one-punch power and has competed against a two-time Olympic gold medalist Julio Cesar La Cruz again Osleys Iglesias. These are better fighters than anyone Benavidez has fought during his 12-year professional career, and arguably better than him.
“I can’t say because I’ve never had him in the ring but on paper he looks like he has everything,” said Benavidez when asked if David Morrell is his toughest opponent so far. “He’s got reach, he’s got speed, he’s got footwork, and he’s strong. That doesn’t scare me.”
No one in Benavidez’s book matches Morrell’s size, youth, technical ability, or strength. This is the best fighter he will ever fight, and if he loses, that will prove it on February 1. Gvozdyk has been a good fighter for years, but when Benavidez fought him, he was 37 years old, coming off a four-year retirement and a loss of knockout to Artur Beterbiev. If Benavidez had fought the same version of Gvozdyk that knocked out Adonis Stevenson, he would have lost to him.
“I have been playing boxing for 25 years. I like it when I see a strong fighter that I’m about to enter the ring with because what gives me the most satisfaction is shutting the mouths of people who think I won’t make it, who think I’ll be knocked out. I know what I can do, that’s why I took this challenge,” said Benavidez.
Boxing fans have doubted Benavidez’s ability to beat Morrell for years. They also questioned his ability to compete in a division that was natural to his larger cruiserweight frame, at 200 or 175.
Benavidez should have already fought Morrell years ago, and moved up to light heavyweight to face Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol. Furthermore, Benavidez should have already fought at cruiserweight against Jai Opetaia because he has had the size to compete at that weight for years. Instead of getting any of those fights, Benavidez played it safe, melted down to 168, eating smaller, older fights, and didn’t get the fight he wanted against Canelo Alvarez.
Delayed Decision
“This is a challenge that not many people are willing to take on at 168 and 175. So, very difficult challenges, I accept them. I want to be the best fighter ever. So, I will continue to do what I have to do,” said Benavidez.
It took Benavidez three years to finally accept a challenge from Cuba’s Morrell, who has been calling him since 2022. Benavidez didn’t want to fight Morrell, but changed his mind after his disappointing fight against Radivoje Kalajdzic on August 3 in Los Angeles.
That means that Benavidez is not as brave as he makes himself out to be because if he had no fear, he would have fought Morrell in 2022 instead of choosing to fight these guys:
– Oleksandr Gvozdyk
– Demetrius Andrade
– Caleb Plant
– David Lemieux
Source link
