Zab Judah and Anthony Dirrell both feel that interim WBC light heavyweight champion David Benavidez has too much experience for David Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) and will defeat him in their 12-round headliner on February 1st at the T- Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
12 years of damage: the toll it takes
The wear and tear of a long, grueling 12-year career is starting to show on ‘Mexican Monster’ Benavidez. We are seeing the beginning of the collapse.
Although he is young at 28, physically he looks much older, like a person in his mid to late 30s, due to the punishment he received. We’re seeing it now, with him going into fights with multiple injuries, stamina issues and slowed reflexes.
In Benavidez’s last fight, his head looked like a doorstop with the shots he was hit with by Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15th.
He didn’t block anything and was hit at will by Gvozdyk. If the Ukrainian fighter hadn’t been recently retired for four years, he probably would have knocked out Benavidez. It was hard to see. Granted, this was his first fight at 175, but it was clear that David had reached his ceiling. It was a combination of age and fighting where he should have been all along.
Weight Bully?
People criticize Benavidez for fighting out of his natural weight class and competing at 168 rather than 175. Although he was young enough to dehydrate in weight, he probably wouldn’t have been able to do so if there was strict 10-lb rehydration. limits to prevent him from blowing up. In other words, Benavidez was a weight bully, and Judah and Dirrell fail to mention it.
Judah thinks Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) will knock Morrell out early using his volume punch. He crushes his opponents and unloads non-stop punches. That’s what he did with Dirrell and tried to do with his last opponent, Oleksandr Gvozdyk. It didn’t work in that case.
“I believe that fight lasts four rounds. David Benavidez by knockout,” said Zab Judah MillCity BoxingBenavidez opts to stop David Morrell on February 1st. “David comes in round one.
“I think it’s going to take longer than that,” said Anthony Dirrell. “David (Benavidez) doesn’t have the one punch (power). This is the accumulation. David has some pop, but I don’t see the one-punch knockout.
“David Morrell can last a bit. Being from Cuba, he can also hit. Everyone knows Cubans are made to hit. If I have to lean one way, it’s David Benavidez 100% because of his resume. We haven’t tested Morrell yet. We have seen David tested on several occasions.
“We haven’t tested Morrell in a big guy fight, such a magnitude as this. This fight, everybody is going to want to see this fight. It depends on how Morrell is going to fight,” Dirrell said when asked if Morrell could go the distance of 12 rounds with Benavidez.
Dirrell has first-hand experience fighting Benavidez on September 28, 2019, and was stopped on a cut in the ninth round. He did stun him twice with left hooks, but couldn’t finish him off. Benavidez was much bigger than Dirrell and looked like a light heavyweight
Past-Their-Prime Fighters
We also haven’t seen Benavidez tested in a big fight. It’s not just Morrell. Dirrell was in his mid-30s when he fought Benavidez, and well, his first. He was also much smaller and went up against the light, heavyweight-sized Mexican Monster.
Morrell has fought better guys in the amateur ranks than Benavidez has as a pro. It’s not even close. Morrell has the experience advantage against quality opposition. The best fighters Benavidez fought were mainly older, over-the-hill fighters like these guys:
– Demetrius Andrade: 36
– Oleksandr Gvozdyk: 37
– David Lemieux: 35
– Wanderer Alexis Angulo: 40
Caleb Plant was not old when he fought Benavidez in 2023, but Canelo Alvarez already knocked him out in 2021. He had no power. This is the only younger world class fighter that Benavidez has beaten. The rest of them were old.
“David, it’s the buildup that’s going to get to him (Morrell). He has a little doll. Every punch, you’re going to feel it. I think Morrell is going to put up a fight,” says Dirrell.
“Do you think David Morrell can beat David Benavidez?” Judah said.
“Benavidez can land a hit, though,” Dirrell said. “We’ve never seen Benavidez really hurt. I never saw it. He was dropped, but I think it was a lightning strike (against Ronald Gavril on September 8, 2017, in their first fight. He was a little too aggressive, but that’s Benavidez.”
If Morrell is forced into a war on the inside, he has a chance to knock Benavidez out because he is much stronger and bigger than the guys he fought at 168. Gvozdyk could not fight on the inside. He mostly relieved Benavidez from the outside after he gassed out in the second half of the fight. Again, Dirrell hurt Benavidez and was much smaller.
Morrell’s Youthful Advantage
“I think he has calmed down a bit. He is a good counter puncher. So, block and come back with his own counter. I think it will be a good fight. I think it will be a chess match first. Then it will heat up in the middle of the laps,” said Dirrell.
“I see it’s going to be four rounds,” says Judah.
“No, I don’t see Morrell taking it out on him like that,” says Dirrell. “I see him move, get his shots in, but be on the move. I think he’s going to mess it up sometimes because of the blood, but I don’t see such a mess.”
Morrell, 26, is two years younger than Benavidez, but is younger and has that freshness factor to him. He hasn’t bumped into the pro ranks like Benavidez for 12 years, and it shows. So, Judah and Dirrell look at the experience factor as a positive rather than a huge negative for Mexican Monster Benavidez. When it’s early in a fighter’s career, experience is important, but not when a guy has been in the game since 2013. Then it is negative.
“So you’re saying that Morrell has to take him into deeper waters for him to win?” Judah said.
“You have to, but Benavidez is also getting stronger as he goes. We have to see how Morrell’s condition goes in the fight,” said Dirrell. “I’m seeing David in Vegas right now. If you don’t go to Vegas a few weeks before, it’s over.”
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