Can Benavidez withstand Morel’s power?

Dan Rafael believes that WBC interim super middleweight champion David Benavides has the upper hand in his fight against ‘regular’ WBA champion David Morrell on February 1st.

Reporter Rafael believes that Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) has the better chin and punching power of Cuba’s Morel (11-0, 9 KOs) in this bout, which will be shown live on PBC on Prime Video PPV from T- Mobile arenas in Las Vegas.

The experience factor

“I would lean towards Benavidez. “I wouldn’t say because of pedigree, because David Morrell has a deep amateur background in the Cuban system,” said Dan Rafael. Booking Social about the David Benavidez vs. David Morrell fight on February 1st.

“Both are in their prime athletically, although David Morrell has fewer fights because he started late.” He left Cuba, and he moved very quickly in the early days of his career. But he didn’t have to have 1,000 fights because he had all that amateur experience, while Benavidez turned pro at 17 years old. He was more in the running to get him to this point.

“When you look at the records and you see one guy has less than 15 fights and one guy has 30 fights, you think that guy is a lot older and has a lot more experience. That is not the case. Both are much closer in age and experience, Morrell’s amateur background kind of makes up for that, while Benavidez has more professional experience.”

Morel has more experience in the sport than Benavidez, who had 148 rounds as a pro during his 12-year career.

Morel has 54 rounds, but was 130-2 as an amateur in Cuba and has more rounds against better opponents than Benavidez fought as a professional. Benavidez has fought limited fighters, mostly old guys like Gvozdik, Demetrius Andrade, 36, David Lemieux and Caleb Plant.

Beard and power

“I’m leaning towards Benavidez because the combination of his chin and power might be a little better than Morel had,” Rafael said.

Morel, 26, is a little over a year younger than the fighter and has never been injured before. It’s hard to say for sure if Benavidez has a better chin or not when Morel has never been injured. In terms of power, Morrell is a far superior hitter. Raphael is also on it.

Benavidez is more of a volume player who punches the arm a lot. All 24 of the Mexican Monster’s knockouts came when he was fighting below his natural weight at 168, and had a huge size advantage over his opponents.

When he moved up to 175 in his last fight after 11 years as a professional, his power wasn’t the same, and he was never a threat to knock out his opponent Alexander Gvozdyk on June 15 of last year.

“I have no evidence of that because it’s not like Morrell was knocked down or knocked out or seriously injured.” I just have a feeling that in a firefight, the guy who’s going to be able to do a little bit better is going to be Benavidez. But we’ll see. That’s why it’s a 50-50 fight,” Rafael said.