Morrell promises to “make it look easy” against Benavidez

David Morrell says he will “look easy” beating David Benavidez in two weeks from today, February 1, in a 12-round light heavyweight bout.

WBA ‘regular’ welterweight champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) sees Benavidez as a simple, “fat” pressure fighter who walks forward, throws punches but lacks “power” in his punches. He says he knows he’s stronger than Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs), which goes without saying.

Benavidez’s lack of power

The ‘Mexican Monster’ has no power. He is a big player who thrived during the first 11 years of his career when he was a big fish in a small pond at 168.

Like many younger fighters, Benavidez could relax to fight in a division significantly smaller than his body size. Early in his career, we saw the same thing with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

Now that Benavidez is at 175, his edge is gone, his lack of punching power is even more of a liability, and he no longer has the size to fall back on. Now he’s fighting a guy just as big as him, Morrell, but with superior skills and talent, a true knockout artist. It’s not looking good for Benavidez.

Morrell: Make it ‘look easy’

“Benavidez is not easy, but I will make it look easy. They are two different things,” Morel told Gloves Off episode 2. “Every time you hit the gym, work, work, work. It’s better to cry here than cry in the ring at a fight.

“That’s the problem in this fight. He and I, we’re both guys who like to press,” Morel said of the constant pressure Benavidez put on his last opponent, Alexander Gvozdyk in his debut at 175 last June 15 in Las Vegas. “They both like to step up and apply pressure.” Who is stronger? I know it’s me.

“Everybody says that in his last fight he really didn’t have the power to knock some people out.” He has nothing. This is my real weight, 175,” Morrell said. I feel comfortable at this weight right now.”

Frame-wise, Benavidez is a light heavyweight and has been throughout his career, but his power is more like a middleweight (160 lbs), and he lands a lot more punches than when he fought at 168. In Benavidez’s debut at 175 against the former WBC champion at light heavyweight Oleksandr Gvozdyk, is in that competition received a punishment worth a career.

Life will be very different for Benavidez at 175 years old. He will be fighting killers like Morel and facing quality opposition for the first time in his long professional career. As a 12-year pro, Benavidez is a first-time prospect, but he’s not physically young.

Betrayal of the body

Benavidez’s body has seen the wear and tear of a fighter who has been in the game for over a decade. All the sparring wars had further exhausted him. Now we’re seeing the effects, with Benavidez going down with injuries left and right in his last fight.

It’s an outfit from a long career rearing its ugly head. He’s like an old car with 300,000 miles on the odometer. Yes, you shine the car, but it’s still an old car engine and transmission. So it is with Benavides. Plenty of mileage on it.

“I really believe I’m seeing a legend.” “He reminds me so much of a guy like Evander Holyfield, a guy like Pernell Whittaker,” coach Ronnie Shields said of Morrell. “The reason he reminds me of those guys is the way he works.

“I give credit to Benavidez because he got involved with him.” He didn’t have to. It just goes to show that you have fighters who want to fight the best. So now he’s getting an opportunity,” Shields said.

The final step

You have to give credit to Benavidez for FINALLY stepping up in his twelfth year as a pro to fight Morel after calling him names for two solid years. Benavidez has had a very long career, and, surprisingly, it took him this long to start fighting elite-level fighters rather than the old, toothless, smaller guys he built his entire 29-0 record around.

There is a formula in this era of boxing where fighters create plastic plates fighting the fish and then bragging to try and get the big cash payout. Is Benavidez one of them?

He fought the same guys as Edgar Berlanga, and it’s hard not to put ‘The Mexican Monster’ in the same category. As they say, you are what you eat. It goes well in the professional game for produced fighters who create unbeatable records built 100% on beating cans of tomatoes.

Benavidez has fought exclusively against lower level opposition and has been a pro for almost 15 years. How can you not fight against quality opposition, especially with a huge advantage over everyone?

“What I see with Morel is a lot of weaknesses that I can exploit,” Benavidez said. “He says he’s a better fighter than me because he’s from Cuba and trained with Cubans, but that doesn’t mean anything.” I grew up sparring monsters.

Both fighters have sparred plenty of good opponents throughout their careers, but Benavidez shouldn’t see that as some kind of honor or war medal to pin to his chest. All fighters do that. Benavidez even mentions it as a sign of insecurity. The flaws Benavidez sees in Morel exist in his game.

He is designing his weaknesses towards Morell and his failure to admit that he is even more vulnerable now than he was when he wore himself down to fight smaller, older fighters at 168 to game the system. Benavidez is starting to break down physically now due to his long career in the game.