Morrell promises to “make it look easy” against Benavidez

David Morrell says he will make it “look easy” to beat David Benavidez two weeks from today, February 1, in their 12-round light heavyweight headline fight.

WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) sees Benavidez as just a simple “fat” pressure fighter who walks forward, throwing punches, but with no “power” in his blows. He says he knows he is stronger than Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs), which is evident.

Benavidez’s lack of power

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

Like many younger fighters, Benavidez might struggle to fight in a division well below his body size. Early in his career, we saw the same thing with Julio César Chávez Jr.

Now that Benavidez is at 175, his advantage 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 as big as him, Morrell, but with superior skills and talent, a true knockout artist. It doesn’t look good for Benavidez.

Morrell: Making it “look easy”

“Benavidez is not easy, but I’m going to make it look easy. “They are two different things,” Morrell said. Gloves removed episode 2. “Every time you come to the gym, work, work, work. It’s better to cry here than cry inside the ring in the fight.

“That’s the problem in this fight. He and I, too, are guys who like to pressure,” Morrell said of the constant pressure Benavidez applied to his last opponent, Oleksandr Gvozdyk in his debut at 175 last year on June 15 in Las Vegas. “Both boys like to get forward and press. Who is stronger? I know it’s me.

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

As for his build, Benavidez is a light heavyweight and has been for his entire career, but his power is more akin to that of a middleweight (160 pounds), and he is taking many more hits than when he was fighting at 168. In the Benavidez’s debut at 175 against former WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk, he took the punishment of his entire career in that fight.

Life will be very different for Benavidez at 175. He will fight assassins like Morrell and face quality opposition for the first time in his long professional career. As a 12-year pro, Benavidez is like a prospect, stepping forward for the first time but 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 have worn him down even more. We’re seeing the effects now, with Benavidez suffering injuries left and right in his last fight.

That’s wear and tear from a long career rearing its ugly head. It’s like an old car with 300,000 miles on the odometer. Yes, you shine the car, but it’s still an old engine and transmission-wise. That’s how it is with Benavidez. Lots of mileage on it.

“I truly believe I am seeing a legend. “He reminds me a lot of a guy like Evander Holyfield, a guy like Pernell Whitaker,” coach Ronnie Shields said of Morrell. “The reason he reminds me of those guys is because of the way they work.

“I give credit to Benavidez because he is intervening with him. I didn’t have to do it. It just shows that there are fighters who want to fight the best. Now he has a chance,” Shields said.

Finally stepping forward

You have to give Benavidez credit for FINALLY stepping up in his 12th year as a pro to fight Morrell after being nominated by him for two full years. Benavidez has had a very long career and, surprisingly, it has taken him this long to start facing elite level fighters instead of the old, toothless, smaller guys that he has built his entire 29-0 record on.

There is a formula in this era of boxing where fighters create plastic discs fighting through the bushes and then bragging about themselves to try to get a big payday. Is Benavidez one of them?

He’s fought the same type of guys as Edgar Berlanga, and it’s hard not to include ‘El Monstruo Mexicano’ in the same category. As the saying goes: “You are what you eat.” That goes well in the professional game for manufactured fighters who create undefeated records built 100% by beating tomato cans.

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

“What I see in Morrell are a lot of flaws that I can take advantage of,” Benavidez said. “He says he is a better fighter than me because he is from Cuba and trained with Cubans, but that doesn’t mean anything. I grew up fighting monsters.

Both fighters have faced very good opponents during their careers, but Benavidez shouldn’t see that as some kind of honor or war medal to hang on his chest. All fighters do that. Benavidez even mentions it as a sign of insecurity. The flaws Benavidez sees in Morrell exist in his own game.

he is outgoing his weaknesses over Morrell and not admitting that he is even more vulnerable now than when he was exhausting himself fighting smaller and older fighters at 168 to game the system. Benavidez is starting to decline physically due to his long career in the game.