Many fans are starting to believe that WBC interim light heavyweight champion David Benavidez made a mistake by choosing to fight WBA ‘regular’ champ David Morrell at this early stage of his career before getting the money fight he’s been seeking.
Morrell has the power, speed, and technical skills to knock out Benavidez and send him into the mud, where he may never return. The Cuban talent is a fighter that many believe is the heir apparent to the crown at 175, and Benavidez picked the wrong guy to worm his way into a giant, life-changing payday.
The Beterbiev Payday
If David Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) loses this fight to Morrell, he can say goodbye to the $10 million+ payday he can get fighting undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev in 2025. That mega-money fight would go to Morrell, who would get the last laugh. Benavidez will have to work his way back to the top, and there’s no guarantee he can.
Next time, he would have to beat a young top-level contender to capture an interim title at 175. It wouldn’t be the easy situation he had this time, where Benavidez fought 37-year-old Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the WBC interim belt to line himself up in the pole position to fight the undisputed championship against the Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 winner.
The World Boxing Council received much criticism for sanctioning a fight between Benavidez and Gvozdyk for their interim title at 175. This was Benavidez’s first fight at light heavyweight, and he fought a man who had only recently come out of a four-year retirement.
In fairness, Benavidez should have had to work his way into position to fight for the WBC interim 175-lb title, and his opponent should have been one of the top contenders, like Joshua Buatsi.
Yesterday’s scuffle at the media workout, where Morrell came close to clobbering Benavidez with his WBA belt, is an attention-getter. This was a sign of what he has in store for him when he gets in with Morrell and was knocked out in their fight on February 1st, live on PBC on Prime Video PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
A 50-50 Fight
This is by far the best fighter Benavidez will have fought during his 11-year career, and it’s the only one where he’s facing someone with a 50-50 shot at beating. Up until now, Benavidez has provided with gimmes in terms of opponents with sure-thing wins where he had no worries about losing.
He had things slanted in his favor from day one, fighting in a weight class below his gigantic light, weight frame and fighting weak, middle-of-the-road opposition.
Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) didn’t need to take this risky fight against the Cuban talent Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs), who is better than him in every department. ‘The Mexican Monster’ would have likely still gotten chosen to fight the winner of the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 rematch without taking this risky fight against Morrell.
The bravado that led to Benavidez’s decision to take this gamble was created by his victories over smaller, older, hapless fighters at 168. His wins at super middleweight
