David Benavidez’s recent run has made his success feel inevitable – but a win over David Morrell is far from assured

David Benavidez’s boxing career is one of the more improbable among professional pugilists. First off, he’s a former world champion, and a fringe entry on some pound-for-pound lists. He’s unusual primarily because most simply aren’t as good as he is.

But he’s also had a tumultuous path through life and boxing. He barely had an amateur career because he weighed upwards of 200 pounds in his youth and couldn’t make weight. As a pro, he lost a world championship on the scales and another after a positive drug test (for benzoylecgonine in 2018, the key ingredient in cocaine). His style is wildly unconventional: he is a combination-punching destroyer, a stalker with deceptively slick defense. David Benavidez in a boxing ring shouldn’t work, but he does. 

And his march through his most recent fights has had an inevitability that his story did not. 

Against Caleb Plant in 2023, Benavidez found himself undone in a war of words before the fight. The bout itself saw him in with a slick boxer, the most skilled of any of his opponents, in a gigantic ring. Referee Kenny Bayless appeared to let Plant initiate clinches with impunity, allowing him to cut down on Benavidez’s opportunity to land hurtful blows. The situation presented Benavidez with every chance to lose. Instead, he weathered an early deficit and battered Plant to within an inch of a stoppage, winning a unanimous decision. 

Next, he fought Demetrius Andrade, arguably an even trickier boxer who had been avoided, if not ducked, by the likes of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin. Benavidez soaked up his opponent’s fast start in the first three rounds, knocked him down heavily in the fourth, then battered him in five and six until Andrade’s corner stopped the contest with their fighter on his stool. 

Even against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, a fight in which most agree Benavidez looked much more vulnerable, his victory felt certain. Through five rounds, Benavidez was unassailable. Despite not wobbling or dropping Gvozdyk, Benavidez peppered him with power shots from all angles. When he flashed smooth head movement during Gvozdyk’s attacks, he appeared momentarily like a complete fighter. He slowed significantly midway through the bout and never really sped back up, yes, but avoided any real danger and the result was never in doubt. And if you take him at his word that he had injured tendons in both hands, the performance was impressive regardless of the late fade.

Even when Canelo made clear that he had no interest in fighting Benavidez, it felt like Benavidez was marching inexorably towards something – a light heavyweight championship, maybe, or just plain greatness. Eric Raskin even ranked Benavidez as the 10th best super middleweight ever on this very website (read his reasoning before sending complaints his way). His bizarre, brilliant fighting style was breaking down good opposition, and surely it was a matter of time before he left an enduring mark on the sport. 

Fighting David Morrell could put an end to all that. 

Don’t get me wrong, Benavidez deserves applause for taking on the Morrell challenge. He’d seemingly lined himself up for a shot at the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol II winner, and rather than take a soft touch, Benavidez is running headlong towards his ceiling, intent on fighting opponents that will show the boxing world exactly how good he is.

But this fight is a risk. There’s the physical jeopardy, of course – as Lance Pugmire wrote, Morrell punches hard enough to have hospitalized and seriously endangered an opponent – so perhaps Benavidez will spend the whole fight on edge trying not to get caught clean. 

The biggest danger, though, is to the momentum Benavidez has so impressively built. A loss to Morrell, especially a decisive one, would see his fellow “David” move into prime position for the fights that Benavidez will feel he’s long deserved. Benavidez would be forced to rebuild, the boxing world would begin to question how good he was after all, and some – not rightfully – might vindicate Canelo for refusing to fight him. 

Some fights are risky, but still win-win. Take Canelo’s loss to Floyd Mayweather in 2013 – though Canelo got schooled, he gained worldwide exposure and stayed on the fast track to becoming a star (and earned enough money to retire then and there if he’d wanted to). Other fights are risky because a loss could completely alter their career path, and not for the better. 

Benavidez-Morrell is just that. The power-punching Morrell might not be as hard to beat as Mayweather, but he represents more physical danger and much less exposure.

Benavidez is not just risking his undefeated record, he is risking the best possible path for his career. For all the skills of Plant, Andrade, and Gvozdyk, Morrell punches significantly harder than any of them. No shortage of observers and trainers are picking him to win. This is a new challenge and likely a bigger challenge than any Benavidez has faced before. 

The momentum Benavidez has built with his last few fights suggests he’ll find a way through. But a big Morrell right hand might just stop Benavidez in his tracks, and his path towards the upper echelon of the sport with him. 

At the same time, Benavidez enhancing his recent run with a win over Morrell would make him an early contender for Fighter of the Year – and reward him for taking the kind of risk fans hope their favorite fighters have in them.

Owen Lewis is a former intern at Defector media and writes and edits for BoxingScene. His beats are tennis, boxing, books, travel and anything else that satisfies his meager attention span. He is on Bluesky.