Zab Judah and Anthony Dirrell both feel that interim WBC light heavyweight champion David Benavidez is too experienced for David Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) and will beat him in their 12-round main event fight on February 1 at T-Mobile Arena. In Las Vegas.
12 years of damage: losses incurred
The wear and tear of a long and arduous 12-year career is beginning to take its toll on “The Mexican Monster” Benavidez.
Although he is young at twenty-eight years old, he physically looks older, like someone in his mid to late thirties, due to the punishment he received. We see that now, as he comes into fights with multiple injuries, stamina issues, and slow reflexes.
In Benavidez's last fight, his head It was like a doorstop He was shot by Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15. He wasn't holding anything back and was getting beaten at will by Gvozdyk. If the Ukrainian fighter had not recently retired for four years, Benavidez likely would have been knocked out.
Dirrell has first-hand experience fighting Benavidez on September 28, 2019, and was stopped in the ninth round due to a cut. He stunned him twice with left hooks but was unable to finish him off. Benavidez was much larger than Dirrell and looked like a lightweight.
Weight bully
People criticize Benavidez because he fights outside his normal weight class, competing at 168 instead of 175. Although he was small enough to dry weight, he probably wouldn't have been able to do so had there been a strict 10-pound rehydration treatment. Limits to prevent it from exploding. In other words, Benavidez was a heavy-handed bully, and Judah and Dirrell didn't mention it.
Judah believes Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) will strike Morel early with big punches. He jostles his opponents and punches them without stopping. This is what he did with Dirrell and tried to do with his last opponent, Oleksandr Gvozdyk. It didn't work in this case.
“I think the fight will last four rounds,” Zab Judah told David Benavidez by knockout Mill City BoxingBenavidez's choice to suspend David Morell on February 1. “David comes in the first round.
“I think it's going to take longer than that,” Anthony Dirrell said. “David (Benavidez) doesn't have the only power. It's the accumulation. David has some pop, but I don't see a one-punch knockout.
“David Morell can go on a little bit. Being from Cuba, he can hit as well. Everyone knows Cubans are made to hit. If I had to lean in one direction, it's 100 percent David Benavidez because of his resume. We haven't seen Morel test. We've seen David Tested on several occasions.
“We haven't seen Morel tested in a big old fight of this magnitude. In this fight, everyone is going to want to see this fight. It depends on how Morel fights,” Dirrell said when asked if Morel could go the 12-round distance with Benavidez.
Their previous bags
We haven't seen Benavidez get tested in a big fight either. It's not just Morel. Dirrell was in his mid-30s when he fought Benavidez, and he was in his prime. Also, he was a lot smaller, facing off against the Mexican light heavyweight monster.
Morel has fought better guys in the amateur ranks than Benavidez as a pro. It's not even close. Morrell has the advantage of experience against quality competition. The best fighters Benavidez fought were mainly older, experienced fighters like these guys:
– Demetrius Andrade: 36
– Oleksandr Gvozdyk: 37
– David Lemieux: 35
– Rumer Alexis Angulo: 40
Caleb Plante wasn't that old when he faced Benavidez in 2023, but Canelo Alvarez had already knocked him out in 2021. He didn't have the power. This is the only younger, world-class fighter that Benavidez has defeated. The rest were elderly.
“David, it's the buildup that (Morrell) is going to get. He's got some pop. Every punch, you're going to feel it. I think Morrell is going to put up a fight,” Dirrell said.
“Do you think David Morrell can fire David Benavidez?” Judas said.
“Benavidez could take a big hit,” Dirrell said. “We didn't really see Benavidez get hurt. I never saw that. He was knocked down, but I think it was a quick knockout (against Ronald Gavriel on Sept. 8, 2017, in their first fight. He was a little aggressive, but that's Benavidez).
If Morell is forced to fight an insider war, he will have a chance to take down Benavidez because he is much stronger and older than the men he was fighting at 168 years old. Gvozdyk was unable to fight from the inside. He mostly lit Benavidez on the outside after gassing him in the second half of the fight. Once again, Derrell Benavidez was injured, and he was much smaller.
Muriel's youthful advantage
“I think he's calmed down a little bit. He's a good counter player. So, blocking and coming back with his counter. I think it's going to be a good fight. I think it's going to be a chess match at first. Then he's going to heat up in the middle of the rounds,” Dirrell said.
Judah said: “I see that it goes four rounds.”
“No, I don't see Morell picking on him like that,” said Derrell. “I see him moving, shooting the ball, but be on the move. I think he will mix things up sometimes because of the blood, but I don’t see a mix-up like that.”
Morel, 26, is two years younger than Benavidez but is more youthful and has the freshness factor to match. He hasn't shined in the professional ranks like Benavidez in 12 years, and it shows. So, Goda and Dirrell look at the experience factor as a positive rather than a huge negative for the Mexican monster Benavidez. When it's early in a fighter's career, experience matters, but not when a player has been in the game since 2013. That's a negative.
“So, you're saying Morel has to take him into deeper water to win?” Judas said.
“You have to do it, but Benavidez is getting stronger with time as well. We'll have to see what condition Muriel is going into the fight,” Dirrell said. “I see David in Vegas now. “If you don't go to Vegas in a few weeks, it'll be over.”
