In this week’s mailbag, we tackle your thoughts on David Benavidez and David Morrell in the wake of Benavidez’s victory in last weekend’s pay-per-view main event. Is Benavidez not as monstrous as his nickname? Did Morrell gain in defeat? Did Morrell’s mind games work against himself? We also hear from you about Claressa Shields’ victory over Danielle Perkins and Stephen Fulton’s rematch win against Brandon Figueroa.
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A GOOD WIN FOR DAVID BENAVIDEZ, BUT HE IS NO MONSTER
Let’s not give David Benavidez knighthood just yet. Benavidez gave a good account of himself yesterday and, more importantly, he improved since his last fight at 175, where he really struggled with his stamina in the second half of the fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk. Against Morrell, Benavidez was strong and accurate and his defense was excellent, but at the same time Morrell showed us that Benavidez is no monster and that he can be hurt when the punches land cleanly. I would love to watch Benavidez vs Beterbiev – it would be an absolute war for as long as it lasted.
Owen Lewis’ response: If getting hurt from a clean punch disqualifies a boxer from being called a monster, I have bad news for Naoya Inoue: Getting dropped heavily by Luis Nery last May means he must pick a new nickname.
Morrell has real power, certainly more than anybody Benavidez has fought in a while, so I don’t think we should lower Benavidez’s stock because he reacted more to Morrell’s punches than Caleb Plant’s. I was most impressed with how he handled the moments in which Morrell rocked him. Benavidez didn’t bother with holding or circling away; he just slugged back and backed Morrell off.
Knighthood is certainly a bridge too far, but I think you can uncontroversially give Benavidez a spot on the pound-for-pound list now – I have him seventh. Beating Plant, Demetrius Andrade, Oleksandr Gvozdyk and Morrell in succession across two different weight classes is a serious run. Benavidez is still building toward a win that would truly introduce him to the mainstream fans, and fighting the winner of the Beterbiev-Bivol rematch might be it.
I think I’d rather see Benavidez against Bivol; Beterbiev is 40, and who knows how much he’ll have declined after another fight with Bivol, another rest and another training camp. But assuming he can somehow get through all that without losing a step, no question, Beterbiev-Benavidez is the fight.
DAVID MORRELL’S OWN MIND GAMES WORKED AGAINST HIM
It’s funny how David Morrell tried to get into David Benavidez’s head, and was successful, but at the same time Morrell also got caught up emotionally and completely threw away the game plan. Morrell needed to box but decided to brawl. Bad decision, thus the result.
Ryan Songalia’s response: What I think is even funnier is the idea that it was Morrell’s decision to try and exchange punches with Benavidez. Benavidez has a style that forces you to fight when you don’t want to fight. When you have a boxer against a pressure fighter, the boxer eventually has to hurt the pressure fighter to get some respect, or else the pressure fighter may run him over across the 12-round distance.
Morrell just wasn’t able to land anything hard enough to earn him the space to box. Benavidez has underrated defense, with his long arms making it tough to penetrate to land cleanly. Once Morrell was finished punching, Benavidez was right back on him. That takes a toll on a fighter, both mentally and physically. On top of that, Benavidez’s jab was more effective against a southpaw than you’d usually expect, meaning Morrell was constantly being bothered and having his rhythm thrown off.
I think Morrell will be better off for having the experience of going 12 hard rounds with a fighter like Benavidez, but he was facing a different type of “Monster” this past Saturday.
DAVID MORRELL WILL BENEFIT FROM LOSS TO DAVID BENAVIDEZ
Morrell has never faced anyone nearly as good as Benavidez. Now that he has, the Cuban David has a lot of information to work with. Morrell obviously has some improvements to make. I believe – or at least I certainly hope – that he has it in him to evolve. The tools are clearly there. I’m glad these two warriors ended the fight and promotion on good terms. I wasn’t crazy about the way my guy was handling himself in the lead-up to the fight, but I definitely approve of the way he’s behaved in defeat. He’ll be back.
Owen Lewis’ response: I agree. I think this 12-round slugfest provided Morrell with more potential lessons from which to improve than all his previous professional bouts combined. That said, even if he doesn’t evolve, I wouldn’t rule out Morrell winning a title one day.
Benavidez used an array of skills and tactics that future opponents won’t be able to use as effectively against Morrell – the power shots from unorthodox angles, the defense from a squared stance, peeling back the guard, the combination of chin and power to stand in close and bash Morrell with uppercuts. Benavidez may be the best opponent Morrell ever fights, and future foes might be easier to solve. But I also hope he evolves, and if he improves sufficiently to make a rematch with Benavidez interesting in a few years, sign me up for that.
I liked the way Morrell acted after the loss, too. I half-expected him to single out the bad scorecard and run with that, arguing that the fight was actually close enough to warrant a rematch. Instead, he accepted the loss, gave Benavidez his flowers and admitted he needed to improve. Boxing promotions are so often toxic, and each fighter didn’t exactly cover himself in glory in the buildup, even if they built anticipation for the fight. But watching a good scrap dull fighters’ animosity for each other into something resembling kinship never gets old.
SHRUGGING OFF CLARESSA SHIELDS’ LATEST VICTORY
Historic. Monumental. Unforgettable. These are all words I would not use to describe Claressa Shields’ win over a 42-year-old, five-fight novice on Sunday.
Ryan Songalia’s response: It is actually historic that someone has made it financially viable to even host women’s heavyweight title fights. I recall the days when unsung warriors like Sonya Lamonakis had to fight the same fighters over and over for minuscule purses just because that’s what was available.
I don’t know what the alternative is supposed to be for Shields. She has basically cleared out every division she could make weight in, is the only American boxing gold medalist for the past 20 years and is bringing relatively big cards to Flint, Michigan, which hadn’t been a hot market before.
Perkins did only have five pro fights heading in, but she had the experience of being a Team USA national team member as an amateur. If there were someone else Shields should have fought that night, I’d love to hear an argument. Shields is unfortunate to not have a wealth of exciting options to fight, at least not until a time machine gets invented to bring back prime Laila Ali, Ann Wolfe or Lucia Rijker.
GOOD FIGHTS AWAIT STEPHEN FULTON AFTER FEATHERWEIGHT TITLE WIN
Stephen Fulton is a quality world-level fighter. Yeah, he got taken out by Naoya Inoue, who himself is an elite-level talent, so no shame in that. But Fulton at 126lbs against the likes of Nick Ball, or Angelo Leo again in a rematch, are good fights – and Fulton could definitely unify a division again
Lucas Ketelle’s response: Fulton showed the thing a lot of great fighters do – reinvention. Fulton was written off after a devastating, one-sided loss to Naoya Inoue, his spirit appeared broken, and against Carlos Castro red flags were there. Yet Fulton did what special fighters do: They have a performance where you forget about the loss.
Now, Fulton is a capital G guy in the featherweight division. Who knows if he wins all the fights, but does it matter? Not really. He is interesting in all of those fights and he could realistically win every fight. Redemption is a theme of boxing movies, and as a boxing fan, seeing someone redeem themselves in the ring is one of the joys of the sport.
Want to be featured in the mailbag? Comment or ask a question in the comments section below. Submissions may be edited for length and clarity. We also may select readers’ comments from other BoxingScene stories.
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