Bozy: Morrell Needed More Movement, Body Work Against Benavidez

Trainer Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis says he thought former WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion David Morrell was going to box and go to the body of David Benavidez in their fight on February 1st.

Bozy thinks Morrell (11-1, 9 KOs) made a mistake by standing in front of Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs), covering up, and leaning forward instead of moving around to set traps. How the 27-year-old Cuban Morell fought was ideal for Benavidez to take advantage of that style to win a 12-round unanimous decision.

Morrell’s Mistake

Bozy wonders what his coach told Morrell in his corner because he should not have been fighting that way. Morrell still hurt Benavidez several times with big shots but couldn’t capitalize on it. Benavidez won the fight by the scores 118-108, 115-111 and 115-111. The first score turned in by the judge, Tim Cheatham, didn’t reflect what happened in the fight, as it was still close. Morrell got his pound of flesh, hurting Benavidez and marking his face up beyond recognition.

“That was a tremendous fight, but I thought Morrell was going to box more and use his legs,” said trainer Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis to YSM Sports Media, reacting to David Morrell’s loss to David Benavidez on February 1st. “He was leaning in and throwing punches like that. It looked like to me that wasn’t his style to fight Benavidez like that.

“If anyone has their hands up like that against Benavidez and stay like that, Benavidez is sharp with them combinations. Body-head, body-head. But if you move, you make it difficult for him, but he [Morrell] didn’t do that. That’s where he lost at.

“Me too, but he didn’t do none of that at all,” said Bozy when told by the interviewer that he thought Morrell was going to move and set traps. “Benavidez has got it all, too, and he can box a little bit. He’s one of them guys that come to fight. He wants to make it an exciting fight, and that’s why people come to see him fight. He’s a crowd-pleaser.”

Morrell fought the same way in his previous fight against Radivojo Kalajdzic last August. So, it’s possible that it’s a training issue, and he needs to consider getting a new coach to prevent this from happening again.

Benavidez’s Strength

“He’s not just going to box you. He said, ‘The heck with the boxing.’ Once he gets in there, he’s going to the body and to the head and make everything look spectacular,” said Bozy about Benavidez. “That’s why people love him. A couple of times,” said Ennis about Benavidez getting hurt a couple of times by Morrell.

“But he didn’t do it,” said Bozy about Morrell, looking like he could have put something together to get the win after he’d hurt Benavidez. “When he hit him, he buckled him, but Benavidez came right back like a champ. I mean, he came back throwing them punches, man.”

Morrell fought poorly until the 11th, when he relentlessly attacked a very tired and beaten-up-looking Benavidez, dropping him. On the 12th, Benavidez was throwing arm punches and fighting on fumes. Morrell, whose power was still as good as it had been when he started the fight, landed all the hardest shots. It was surprising how tired Benavidez looked.

“Like I said, it was a good fight, but Morrell didn’t fight his fight. He didn’t use his foot movement or none of that,” said Bozy. “As a matter of fact, he didn’t go to the body. I didn’t see him go to the body. I didn’t see none of that [stabs to the body from Morrell]. I don’t know what type of information he was getting in the corner.

“That would be a good fight because the one thing about Benavidez. He got that dog in him,” said Ennis when told that Benavidez is mandatory to fight the winner of the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 rematch. “You got to kill him in the ring. He ain’t never going to quit. You got to make him quit,” said Bozy about Benavidez.