Trainer Stephen Edwards feels David Morrell doesn't have the round IQ to defeat interim WBC light heavyweight champion David Benavidez in their fight on February 1.
Stephen believes the “regular” WBA 175lb champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) relies too much on his power and explosiveness and doesn’t have a bag of tricks he can rely on if that doesn’t work.
Edwards points out that Morel had problems in his fight against Radivoj Kalajdzic on August 3 in his debut at 175, but was never in danger of losing. In fact, Morel dominated every round of the fight, but was occasionally landed heavy blows by Hot Rod, who could strike.
This guy has better power than Benavidez, and Morell had to be careful at times. Mostly, he would land heavy blows on Hot Rod at will, resulting in him being injured several times.
He faced Steven “The Mexican Monster” Benavidez (29-0, 24 KO) when he defeated his fighter Caleb Plant last year on March 25, 2023, and it did not go well for them. He came out of that fight impressed with Benavidez.
Plant was too weak and small for Benavidez, who looked like a cruiserweight champion inside the ring in that fight,
Morrell vs. Benavidez on February 1 on PBC on February 1 Prime Video PPV at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. This is the first fight in Benavidez's 11-year career where he faces someone in a 50-50 fight that he has a chance of beating.
The closest he has come so far to an opponent he had a chance to beat was in his last fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk in his debut at 175 on June 15. Benavidez tired early in that fight and was beaten by Gvozdyk from rounds 7 to 12.
“This is a fight that David Morrell can win, but I don’t know if he will,” said Stephen Edwards. Fighthype About the David Benavidez vs. David Morrell fight on February 1st. “He had problems with Hot Rod, but he wasn't losing.
“There's a difference when you're back in your corner, and you don't know if you've woken up or not. I have to see what his adjustments are like when he doesn't win the fight or when the other guy puts mental pressure on him where he starts to create a little bit of doubt.
“I'm a big fan of David Morrell, but he kind of relies on his power and his strength and his size. He's too old to fight at 168 years old. He's a big guy. I'm a big fan of him, but a lot of the guys he was fighting were much younger than him, where he didn't have to To get into his bag of tricks to rely on other things like his IQ.
Like Benavidez, Morel was too big for the 168-pound division, but he doesn't fight at 175 pounds. Both have fought against smaller fighters at super middleweight. Morel wasn't the only one who fought off a lot of young players. Benavidez was always bigger than his opponents during the 11 years he fought at 168 years old.
“I'm not saying he doesn't have it, but I haven't seen it yet,” said Eduarda Bott-Morrell, IQ Circular. “I'd go with David Benavidez. I think his IQ is underrated. His defense is underrated. People say he's easy to hit, but when you fight like he fights, you're going to get hit when you walk up to a guy. Plus, he's a big guy, but he takes a lot of hits.” Punches.
“He's really good at punching with you. He can counterpunch. He's very conscious of his defense. He's not there to let his head get smashed all over the place. When you see him getting hit, look at him closely. And even when he's getting hit, his hands are up. So, the punches have to “It expends a lot of power,” Edwards said of Benavidez.
