Lionell ‘Lonnie B’ Thompson is picking David Benavidez to defeat WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion David Morrell when they meet on January 25th.
The two light, unbeaten fighters will meet to determine who will face whoever emerges as the victor in the rematch between undisputed champion Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
Lonnie B. feels that WBC interim 175-lb champion Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) is more “battle-tested at the pro level than the 26-year-old Cuban David Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs), and he says he’s fought better opposition. However, he acknowledges that Morrell has excellent power and is slick.
Lonnie B doesn’t know how good Morrell is because his best wins have come against this limited group:
– Radivoje Kalajdzic
– Sena Agbeko
– Yamaguchi Falcao
– Aidos Yerbossynuly
– Lennox Allen
His Excellency Turki Alalshikh has already said that he wants to set up a rematch to clear up the controversy over Beterbiev’s 12-round majority decision win over Bivol last Saturday night in Riyadh. That fight will probably happen in the first quarter of 2025.
“David Morrell is slick, but I’m leaning more toward Benavidez. David [Benavidez] is an extremely good fighter, and he’s big. Fighting Oleksandr Gvozdyk, I think his resume is better than David Morrell’s. I think he’s more battle-tested than Morrell,” said Lionell Thompson to Fighthype, picking David Benavidez over WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion David in their fight in January.
If Morrell fights like he did against Kalajdzic on August 3rd, he’ll lose to Benavidez because he looked timid when he started getting hit back. Morrell’s power looked top-notch and his speed, but he wasn’t throwing combinations and was getting backed up by the 33-year-old.
“We know that David Morrell is good, but the question is, how good?” said Lonnie B. “This fight is going to show us. Have they pushed him too fast? Is he ready for Benavidez, or is he one of those special specimens who is ahead of his time? We shall find out, but I’m leaning towards Benavidez. That good job that he’s got, the combinations, and going to the body; I’m leaning more toward David [Benavidez].
“I’m going with Beterbiev. He’s got the kind of power where if he hits anybody, they’re going to be, ‘Whoa,’” said Thompson when asked who wins between Benavidez and Artur Beterbiev. “David [Benavidez] is a lot bigger than Bivol. David is more like a cruiserweight that makes the weight [175]. The thing is, he hasn’t been hit as hard.
“Oleksandr Gvozdyk has decent kind of pop. Artur [Beterbiev] has, ‘I’m going to retire you kind of pop,” said Thompson.
It’s still not a given that Benavidez and Artur Beterbiev will ever fight. Beterbiev still must win his rematch with Bivol, and that could be a tough one because it’s going to be another hard fight where Dmitry is moving nonstop, landing shots and likely using clinching to keep Beterbiev from getting his shots off.
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