David Benavidez’s father and trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr., says he wants David Morrell now following his victory last Saturday over Radivoje Kalajdzic (29-3, 21 KO’s) in the Riyadh Season event in Los Angeles.
(Credit: Mark Robinson Matchroom Boxing)
Benavidez Sr. claims that he wants to make the fight with the 26-year-old newly crowned WBA World light heavyweight champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) now because he keeps “getting better and better.”
Benavidez Sr.’s Opportunistic Move?
Some fans on X view this as an example of Benavidez Sr. being opportunistic, sniffing out weakness in the Cuban Morrell after his less-than-stellar performance against contender Kalajdzic last Saturday night at the BMO Stadium on the Terence Crawford vs. Israil Madrimov undercard.
“He has 11 fights now. I want to fight him now because he’s getting better and better and better,” said Jose Benavidez Sr. to ESNEWS about wanting his son to fight newly crowned WBA World light heavyweight champion David Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) now before he continues improving.
“We’re are going to make this fight because the people want to see this fight, and we want to give the people the fight they want to see,” said Benavidez Sr.
Morrell’s Response
“This fight is coming. So right now, hold on,” Morrell said about his and David Benavidez’s plans to fight.
It would be great if Benavidez and Morrell fought next. The winner would challenge for the undisputed light heavyweight championship against the victor of the October 12th contest between champions Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol. However, Benavidez is the WBC 175-lb mandatory and probably won’t want to put that position at risk by taking an unnecessary fight against Morrell.
Morrell had Kalajdzic hurt several times in the fight but failed to put him away by not pouring it on with nonstop machine gun-like combinations. If Morrell had just fired a 20-punch flurry when he had Kalajdzic stunned, he would have knocked him out.
Instead of doing that, Morrell was loading up, throwing one punch at a time, trying to score a one-punch KO after hurting him. That didn’t work because Kalajdzic ducked many of the single shots that Morrell threw and would recover.
Concerns About Benavidez at Light Heavyweight
David Benavidez looked like a basic run-of-the-mill slugger in his debut at 175 on June 15, winning a 12-round unanimous decision against former WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk.
Benavidez was hit a lot in that fight and was a punching bag in the championship rounds from 9 through 12. He gassed out and just walked forward, eating big shots over and over by Gvozdyk.
At 175, Benavidez looked like an average fringe contender, nothing special. He definitely didn’t show the ability that would worry champions Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
The fight showed that Benavidez’s future at 175 would be very different from his future at 168 when he could use his size to beat older, smaller fighters.
Although Morrell won by a lopsided twelve-round decision, he only fought in spurts. He showed excellent punching power but seemed to fade after the first three rounds. Morrell labored from rounds 4 through 12 and was getting backed up by Kalajdzic. That’s a fighter that Artur Beterbiev knocked out in five rounds in a war in 2019.
It wasn’t an easy fight for Beterbiev, either, but the difference is that he never let up. He attacked Kalajdzic nonstop and worked him over on the inside.
Morrell didn’t do that. He just fought in brief spurts, which allowed the 33-year-old Kalajdzic to stay in the fight, land many shots, and make it to the end. Morrell won by the scores 117-111, 117-111, and 118-110. Many believe the fight was closer than that, perhaps 116-112.
Morrell’s power appeared better than the shots that Beterbiev hit Kalajdzic with five years ago, but he couldn’t stay on him the way his trainer, Ronnie Shields, wanted him to. If Morrell unloaded a nonstop flurry of punches in the first three rounds, he would have knocked him out.
The punches Morrell landed on Kalajdzic would damage Benavidez, who might not be able to take them nearly as well. Morrell’s shots were devasting for Benavidez, who doesn’t move as well as Kalajdzic and would take the punches flush from the Cuban talent. Getting hit by Morrell would be a bad idea for Benavidez because he has no defense at all.
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