David Benavidez says he doesn’t need to give David Morrell a rematch after winning a grueling 12-round unanimous decision in a fight-of-the-year candidate in Las Vegas.
The victory earned Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) the WBC 175-lb mandatory spot, and he says he’ll just sit and wait to fight the winner of the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 fight.
Post-Morrell: Damaged Goods?
‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez states that if Bivol wins the rematch, he’ll wait until they’ve had their trilogy before he fights again. He doesn’t say why he’ll wait, but it might have to do with the punishment he took against Morrell.
There would be pressure for him to fight the Cuban again due to how much interest the fight drew with fans, and Benavidez wouldn’t take that kind of a beating again.
Morrell might win the rematch because he knows how to beat Benavidez now by pressing him relentlessly from the first round. The Cuban made him look like an old man in the championship rounds from 10 through 12.
Canelo Dream: Delusional
“I think it’ll happen. I just got to keep doing what I’m doing. I think I’ve shown I’m a big enough name,” said David Benavidez to Ariel Helwani’s channel when asked if he thinks a fight between him and Canelo Alvarez will happen before the Mexican star retires.
“David Morrell wasn’t that known, but we still sold 20,000 people at the T-Mobile Arena. I’m sure the PPVs were pretty good, and I still have a lot of room to grow. I don’t know when Canelo is going to retire, but maybe in a couple of years. I’ll have more titles, and Canelo will probably have more titles, and it’ll make for a bigger fight. It would be kind of like Mayweather and Pacquiao.
“I felt it was close to happening [a match against Canelo], because I’d done everything I was supposed to do to get the fight. People want the fight. For the past two years, I thought it was going to happen, but I guess it’s not time yet.
It’s silly for Benavidez to continue to talk about a fight with Canelo happening one of these days because he needs to give up on his useless goal. It seems like a fixation with him that he can’t get out of his mind.
175lb Unification: Empty Talk
“When I unify all the belts at 175, I’ll get all the respect that one day I knew I’d get. I’m sure I’ll get bigger, and can do cruiserweight, but after cruiserweight, I don’t think I’ll be able to go up any more than that,” said Benavidez.
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