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David Morrell says he’ll make it “look easy” beating David Benavidez in two weeks from at this time on February 1st, of their 12-round headliner at gentle heavyweight.
The WBA ‘regular’ gentle heavyweight champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) views Benavidez as only a easy, “Fat” stress fighter who walks ahead, throwing punches, however no “power” in his punches. He says he is aware of he’s stronger than Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs), which fits with out saying.
Benavidez’s Lack Of Energy
‘The Mexican Monster’ doesn’t have energy. He’s a quantity puncher who thrived in the course of the first 11 years of his profession when he was an enormous fish in a small pond at 168.
Like many youthful fighters, Benavidez might drain right down to battle in a division nicely beneath his physique measurement. Early in his profession, we noticed the identical factor with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Now that Benavidez is at 175, his benefit is gone, his lack of punching energy much more of a legal responsibility, and he now not has the scale to fall again on. He’s now preventing a man simply as large as him, Morrell, however with superior abilities and expertise, a real knockout artist. It doesn’t look good for Benavidez.
Morrell: Making It “Look Easy”
“Benavidez isn’t easy, but I’m going to make it look easy. They are two different things,” stated Morrell to the Gloves Off episode 2. “Each time you come to the health club, work, work, work. It’s higher to cry right here than cry contained in the ring on the battle.
“That’s the problem in this fight. Him and me too, we’re both guys who like to pressure,” stated Morrell in regards to the fixed stress that Benavidez utilized to his final opponent, Oleksandr Gvozdyk in his debut at 175 final yr on June fifteenth in Las Vegas. “Each guys like to come back ahead and stress. Who’s extra sturdy? I do know it’s me.
“Everybody says in his last fight he really didn’t have the power to knock out some people. He doesn’t have nothing. This is my real weight, 175,” stated Morrell. Proper now, I really feel snug at this weight.”
Body-wise, Benavidez is a light-weight heavyweight and has been his complete profession, however his energy is extra like a middleweight [160 lbs], and he’s getting hit much more than he did when he was preventing at 168. In Benavidez’s debut at 175 in opposition to former WBC gentle heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk, he took a profession’s price of punishment in that contest.
Life goes to be very completely different for Benavidez at 175. He’ll battle killers like Morrell and face high quality opposition for the primary time in his lengthy professional profession. As a 12-year professional, Benavidez is sort of a prospect, stepping up for the primary time however not being younger bodily.
Physique Betrayal
Benavidez’s physique has seen the damage and tear of a fighter who has been within the recreation for over a decade. All of the wars in sparring have additional worn him down. We’re seeing the consequences now, with Benavidez breaking down with accidents left and proper in his final battle.
That’s put on from an extended profession rearing it’s ugly head. He’s like an outdated automotive with 300,000 miles on the odometer. Yeah, you shine up the automotive, nevertheless it’s nonetheless an outdated automotive engine and transmission-wise. That’s how it’s with Benavidez. A whole lot of mileage on him.
“I really believe I’m seeing a legend. He reminds me so much of a guy like Evander Holyfield, of a guy like Pernell Whitaker,” stated coach Ronnie Shields about Morrell. “The rationale he jogs my memory of these guys is due to the best way he works.
“I give Benavidez credit because he’s stepping in with him. He didn’t have to. It just shows you have fighters out there who want to fight the best. So, now he’s getting an opportunity,” stated Shields.
Lastly Stepping up
You must give Benavidez credit score for FINALLY stepping up in his twelfth yr as a professional to take the battle in opposition to Morrell after being referred to as out by him for 2 strong years. Benavidez has had a really lengthy profession, and, surprisingly, it’s taken him this lengthy to start out taking up the elite-level fighters relatively than outdated, toothless, smaller guys that he’s constructed his complete 29-0 document on.
There’s a method on this period of boxing the place fighters create plastic information by preventing scrubs after which brag about themselves to attempt to get an enormous cash-out payday. Is Benavidez one among them?
He’s fought the identical sort of guys as Edgar Berlanga, and it’s exhausting to not lump ‘The Mexican Monster’ in the identical class. Because the saying goes, ‘You are what you eat.’ That goes nicely within the professional recreation for manufactured fighters that create unbeaten information constructed 100% on beating tomato cans.
Benavidez has fought solely lower-level opposition, and he’s been a professional for nearly 15 years. How do you not battle high quality opposition, particularly with a large measurement benefit over everybody?
“What I see in Morrell is a lot of flaws that I can take advantage of,” stated Benavidez. “He says he’s a greater fighter than me as a result of he’s from Cuba and he skilled with Cubans, however that doesn’t imply something. I grew up sparring monsters.
Each fighters have sparred with a number of good opposition throughout their careers, however Benavidez shouldn’t see that as some sort of honor or warfare medal to pin on his chest. All fighters try this. Benavidez even mentions it as an indication of insecurity. The issues that Benavidez sees in Morrell exist in his personal recreation.
He’s projecting his weaknesses onto Morrell and failing to confess he’s much more susceptible now than he was when he was draining right down to battle smaller, older fighters at 168 to recreation the system. Benavidez is beginning to bodily break down now attributable to his lengthy profession within the recreation.
