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Zab Judah and Anthony Dirrell each really feel that WBC interim mild heavyweight champion David Benavidez has an excessive amount of expertise for David Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) and can defeat him of their 12-round headliner combat on February 1st on the T-Cell Area in Las Vegas.
12 Years of Injury: The Toll It’s Taken
The wear and tear & tear of an extended, grueling 12-year profession is beginning to present on the ‘Mexican Monster’ Benavidez. We’re seeing the beginning of the breakdown.
Though he’s younger at 28, he bodily appears to be like a lot older, like an individual in his mid-to-late 30s, because of the punishment he’s acquired. We’re seeing that now, with him coming into fights with a number of accidents, stamina issues, and slowed reflexes.
In Benavidez’s final combat, his head resembled a doorstop with the photographs he was getting hit with by Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June fifteenth.
He wasn’t blocking something and getting hit at will by Gvozdyk. If the Ukrainian fighter hadn’t been not too long ago retired for 4 years, he would have seemingly knocked Benavidez out. That was arduous to look at. Granted, it was his first combat at 175, nevertheless it was apparent that David had reached his ceiling. It was a mixture of age and preventing the place he ought to have been all alongside.
Weight Bully?
Individuals criticize Benavidez for preventing outdoors of his pure weight class, competing at 168 slightly than 175. Though he’s been younger sufficient to dehydrate down in weight, he seemingly wouldn’t have been in a position to do that if there had been strict 10-lb rehydration limits to forestall him from blowing up. In different phrases, Benavidez has been a weight bully, and Judah and Dirrell fail to say that.
Judah thinks Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) will knockout Morrell early, utilizing his quantity punching. He crowds his opponents and unloads nonstop punches. That’s what he did with Dirrell and tried to do together with his final opponent, Oleksandr Gvozdyk. It didn’t work in that case.
“I believe that fight is going four rounds. David Benavidez by knockout,” mentioned Zab Judah to MillCity Boxing, choosing Benavidez to cease David Morrell on February 1st. “David is available in spherical one.
“I think it’s going to go longer than that,” mentioned Anthony Dirrell. “David [Benavidez] doesn’t have the one punch [power]. It’s the buildup. David has some pop, however I don’t see the one-punch knockout.
“David Morrell can final a bit bit. Being from Cuba, he can hit, too. Everybody is aware of Cubans are made to hit. If I’ve to lean a technique, it’s David Benavidez 100% due to his resume. We haven’t seen Morrell examined. We’ve seen David examined on a number of events.
“We haven’t seen Morrell tested in a big old fight, a magnitude like this. This fight, everybody is going to want to see this fight. It depends on how Morrell is going to fight,” mentioned Dirrell when requested if Morrell can go the 12-round distance with Benavidez.
Dirrell has first-hand expertise preventing Benavidez on September 28, 2019, and was stopped within the ninth spherical on a lower. He did stun him twice with left hooks however couldn’t end him. Benavidez was a lot greater than Dirrell and appeared like a light-heavyweight
Previous-Their-Prime Fighters
We haven’t seen Benavidez examined in a giant combat, both. It’s not simply Morrell. Dirrell was in his mid-30s when he fought Benavidez, and nicely, his prime. Additionally, he was loads smaller, going up in opposition to the sunshine, heavyweight-sized Mexican Monster.
Morrell has fought higher guys within the beginner ranks than Benavidez has as a professional. It’s not even shut. Morrell has the expertise benefit in opposition to high quality opposition. The most effective fighters Benavidez fought have been primarily older, over-the-hill fighters like these guys:
– Demetrius Andrade: 36– Oleksandr Gvozdyk: 37– David Lemieux: 35– Roamer Alexis Angulo: 40
Caleb Plant wasn’t previous when he fought Benavidez in 2023, however Canelo Alvarez had already knocked him out in 2021. He had no energy. That’s the one youthful world-class fighter that Benavidez has crushed. The remainder of them have been previous.
“David, it’s the accumulation that is 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,” mentioned Dirrell.
“Do you think David Morrell can knock out David Benavidez?” mentioned Judah.
“Benavidez can take a hit, though,” mentioned Dirrell. “We’ve never really seen Benavidez hurt. I never seen it. He got dropped, but I think it was a flash knockdown [against Ronald Gavril on September 8, 2017, in their first fight. He was a little too aggressive, but that’s Benavidez.”
If Morrell is pressured right into a conflict on the within, he’s obtained an opportunity to knock out Benavidez as a result of he’s loads stronger and larger than the fellows he’s been preventing at 168. Gvozdyk couldn’t combat on the within. He principally lit up Benavidez from the surface after he gassed out within the second half of the combat. Once more, Dirrell had Benavidez damage, and was loads smaller.
Morrell’s Youthful Benefit
“I think he calmed down a little bit. He’s a good counter-puncher. So, blocking and coming back with his own counter. I think it’ll be a good fight. I think it’ll be a chess match at first. Then it’ll heat up in the middle of the rounds,” mentioned Dirrell.
“I see it going four rounds,” mentioned Judah.
“No, I don’t see Morrell banging it out with him like that,” mentioned Dirrell. “I see him moving, getting his shots in, but be on the move. I think he’s going to mix it up at times because of the blood, but I don’t see a mix-up like that.”
Morrell, 26, is 2 years youthful than Benavidez however is younger and has that freshness issue going for him. He hasn’t pounded for 12 years within the professional ranks like Benavidez, and that exhibits. So, Judah and Dirrell are trying on the expertise issue as a optimistic slightly than as a significant unfavourable for the Mexican Monster Benavidez. When it’s early in a fighter’s profession, expertise is necessary, however not when a man has been within the sport since 2013. Then it’s a unfavourable.
“So, you’re saying that Morrell has to take him into the deeper waters for him to win?” mentioned Judah.
“You have to, but Benavidez gets stronger as it goes, too, though. We got to see what Morrell’s condition is going into the fight,” mentioned Dirrell. “I see David in Vegas right now. If you don’t go to Vegas a few weeks before, it’s over.”
