Can Benavidez resist Morrell’s power?

Dan Rafael believes interim WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez has the advantage in his battle against WBA ‘regular’ champion David Morrell on February 1.

Journalist Rafael considers that Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) has a better chin and punching power than the Cuban Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) in this confrontation, which will be broadcast live on PBC on Prime Video PPV. from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Experience factor

“I would lean towards Benavidez. “I wouldn’t say because of his pedigree, because David Morrell has that deep amateur experience of the Cuban system,” Dan Rafael told social boxing about the fight between David Benavidez and David Morrell on February 1.

“They are both in their athletic prime in terms of their age, even though David Morrell has fewer fights because he had a late start. He left Cuba and moved very quickly in the early days of his career. But he didn’t need to have 1,000 fights because he had all that amateur experience, whereas Benavidez turned pro at 17 years old. It was more of a work in progress to get to this point.

“When you look at the records and see that one guy has less than 15 fights and another has 30 fights, you think that guy is much older and has much more experience. That is not the case. “They are both much closer in age and in terms of experience, the amateurs that Morrell has make up for it, while Benavidez has more professional experience.”

Morrell has more experience in the sport than Benavidez, who has competed 148 rounds as a professional during his 12-year career.

Morrell has 54 rounds, but was 130-2 as an amateur in Cuba and has more overall rounds against better opponents than Benavidez has faced as a pro. Benavidez has fought limited, mostly older fighters like Gvozdyk, Demetrius Andrade, 36, David Lemieux and Caleb Plant.

Chin and power

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

Morrell, 26, is the younger fighter by just over a year and has never been hurt before. It’s hard to say for sure if Benavidez has a better chin or not when Morrell has never been hurt. In terms of power, Morrell is by far the better puncher. Rafael is wrong about that too.

Benavidez is more of a volume puncher who throws a lot of arm punches. The Mexican Monster’s 24 knockouts came when he was fighting below his natural weight class at 168, and he had a massive size advantage over his opponents.

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

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