Shawn Porter gives David Benavidez the edge to defeat WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion David Morrell this Saturday, February 1st, in their 12-round headliner on PBV on Prime Video PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Porter’s view on the fight is similar to that of other pro-Benavidez fans. He picks Benavidez to win based on his more significant experience in the professional ranks than the 11-0 Morrell.
Experience The Edge
He feels that wins over Demetrius Andrade and Caleb Plant give Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) the advantage over Morrell, who, like Andy Cruz from Cuba, comes into the pros with massive amateur experience against top-flight competition.
Andrade, 36, is pretty old, and Canelo Alvarez had already knocked out Plant. Benavidez’s wins over those two don’t say enough about him to give him the edge in this fight. If anything, those fights showed that Benavidez is still an unknown.
We know that Benavidez looked poor in his debut against Oleksandr Gvozdyk last June. He ran out of gas, showed no power, and was hurt by the stronger fighter.
“That’s 50-50 right there. If anything, 55-45 for Benavidez. I love David vs. David. I love everything about the fight,” said Shawn Porter to Fight Hub TV, discussing this Saturday’s clash between David Benavidez and David Morrell.
“The thing David Benavidez has over Morrell is experience and true strength. Both of those guys are big guys, but I think David Benavidez is a more natural 175-pounder. When you’re in a competitive fight that you know is going to go 12 rounds, of course, you’re prepared for the 12, but when you have had that experience of having resistance at different points in the fight, it’s nothing new to you.
“Morrell has not had resistance [at the pro level]. His fight with ‘Hot Rod’ [Radivoje Kalajdzic, that was a different kind of resistance. That was the kind of resistance of somebody trying to stay away from you, and him not being able to catch up to him.”
Porter is talking about Morrell not having fought anyone who applied the pressure or was the same size as the massive cruiserweight-sized Benavidez. Although Morrell had zero problems in his debut at 175 against Radivoje Kalajdzic on August 3rd last year, he wasn’t being walked down by him the way Benavidez will be trying to do on Saturday.
Radivoje is clearly a bigger puncher than Benavidez for single shots, but he wasn’t trying to overwhelm Morrell with volume the way the ‘Mexican Monster’ will be trying to do. I saying ‘trying’ because it may not work for Benavidez if he walks straight into the teeth of Morrell’s offense, and gets clocked or taken out with a body shot.
Benavidez looked even worse in his debut at 175 than Morrell did in his fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15th last year. He ran out of gas after eight rounds and got hurt by Gvozdyk in the 12th round. Benavidez was a punching bag in the last 30 seconds of the fight, eating hard combos from the Ukrainian.
“With Benavidez, he can bang with him. He’s just as fast, and he can box with him [Morrell]. That sort of resistance plays a mental game with you, and it becomes a rollercoaster ride. David [Benavidez] has been on that ride, but Morrell hasn’t,” said Porter.
We don’t know if Benavidez can bang with Morrell without getting knocked out. We know that Benavidez could bang with 168-pounders, the old small ones he built his first 28 wins on, but he couldn’t do that against Gvozdyk at 175. He got hurt against him, and tried to blame it on having injured hands. It sounded like a punch of excuses by Benavidez.
If he tries to bang with Morrell, he may end up like Sena Agbeko and Yamaguchi Falcão, getting knocked out early. Benavidez has a head like a block of granite, but it could get chipped apart by Morrell.
Body Shots The Key
As we saw against Gvozdyk, Benavidez doesn’t take body shots nearly as well as he does to the head, which is understandable. He likes to eat and gets fat in between fights. Like anyone with a long torso and a tendency to balloon up between fights, Benavidez is fragile to the midsection.
“I’m favoring Benavidez. I don’t know,” said Porter when asked if he could see Benavidez destroying Morrell in six rounds as he did against the much smaller and older Demetrius Andrade on November 25, 2023.
“This one, I could see eight, nine rounds before something like that could happen to Morrell because Morrell is bigger than everyone else, he’s taller [correction: the 6’1″ Morrell is the same height as Andrade, but much younger at 27, stronger and bigger]. He’s just as fast as everyone else. He’s probably stronger than everything else. So, the resistance on both ends is a beautiful fight,” said Porter.
It’s unlikely that Benavidez will score a knockout in this fight without putting himself in grave danger of getting taken out by Morrell or being made to look bad by getting outboxed. Benavidez can’t fight the same way against Morrell as he did against the weak, old, and smaller fighters he was feasting on at Super Middleweight. Benavidez’s resume at 168 is ultra-weak, similar to Edgar Berlanga’s.
Benvidez’s best wins at 168:
Demetrius Andrade: 36
David Lemieux
Caleb Plant
Roamer Alexis Angulo
Ronald Ellis
Anthony Dirrell: 38
Ronald Gavril
Rogelio Medina
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