Jose Benavidez Sr. says his son David Benavidez may move up to cruiserweight to challenge WBA and WBO champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez for his belts after David’s fight against WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion David Morrell on February 1.
Benavidez Sr’s first pick for ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez’s next fight after Morrell is to challenge the winner of the Artur Beterbiev vs. To face Dmitry Bivol 2 rematch. It is the #1 choice. However, if that fight is unavailable due to a potential trilogy, Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) will move up to cruiserweight to challenge Zurdo Ramirez for his two titles.
Are you looking out for Morrell?
Benavidez, 27, doesn’t seem quite involved in the fight against Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs), as he and his father, Jose Sr., are already talking about fighting the Beterbiev-Bivol 2 winner or going down to cruiserweight to challenge Zurdo. Cuban Morrell may be the biggest puncher in the 175-lb division, with true one-punch power, and able to take advantage of Benavidez’s close-up fighting style.
Morrell is a very different kind of fighter than the small, weak and old guys that Benavidez feasts on at 168. visible pot bellylooks like fat Elvis late in his career. What in the world did Benavidez eat to gain so much weight?
Benavidez seemed aware of his fat belly during the face-down, trying to hide it with his arm and looking protectively from that target during his back-and-forth argument with Morrell. It’s not going to be easy for Benavidez to cut off that belly he’s put on, but that’s his burden.
In contrast, the Cuban Morrell already looked in fighting shape, ready to punch holes through Benavidez to expose him as a guy who was never as good as naive fans thought.
In the ten years that Benavidez fought at super middleweight, he was always bigger than his opponents after rehydrating, and he used his massive cruiserweight size to defeat them.
After moving up to 175 in his last fight on June 15 against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Benavidez looked weak and tired, showed no power, and was tagged hard by the 37-year-old former light heavyweight champion.
After the fight, Benavidez looked he went through a gauntletlooking beaten, jaded and relieved that the Nevada judges had given him a 12-round unanimous decision. Many fans felt it should have been a draw. This performance by Benavidez showed that he is not cut out for the light heavyweight division. You have to have the strength to exist among the elite level fighters at 175, and if you lack, you are being walked on. We can see that happen with Benavidez when he faces Morrell.
The judges gave Benavidez the decision, but his problems in that fight will still be there. He can’t punch at 175, and his weight bullying doesn’t work because his opponents are the same size but hit much harder.
Benavidez Sr. Want Ramirez
“Yeah, that’s what we were able to do right away, so that’s what we’re looking for,” Jose Benavidez Sr. said. Fight Hub TV on David Benavidez possibly moving up to cruiserweight to challenge WBA and WBO champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez after the Morrell fight.
“For some reason, if this fight with the winner of Beterbiev and Bivol doesn’t happen or whatever, we will definitely go to cruiserweight to fight Zurdo Ramirez, and hopefully it will happen.”
If Benavidez loses to Morrell, Jose Sr. seems silly afterwards, given all his premature planning about David’s next move. Depending on how badly Benavidez loses to Morrell, he may have to bite the bullet and find a way to return to 168, to save his career.
Zurdo Ramirez defeated WBO cruiserweight champion Chris Billiam-Smith by a 12-round unanimous decision on November 16 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was one of the best performances of Golden Boy-promoted Ramirez’s 15-year career.
That fight showed that Ramirez is still improving, learning and choosing new methods to win his fights. The Ramirez vs. Billiam-Smith scores were 116-112, 116-113 and 116-112.
