Benavidez’s game plan revealed: walk Morrell and test his heart

David Benavidez says he will try to knock down “regular” WBA light heavyweight champion David Morrell and “hurt him every round” in his headliner in 40 days on February 1st on PBC on Prime Video PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Walking Morrell Down

Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) believes he can “hurt” the Cuban Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs), and wants to see if he has “heart” by pressing him. This could be a mistake for “Mexican Monster” Benavidez to try to knock Morrell down in this fight because this is arguably the biggest puncher in the 175-pound division. He can walk into something and get knocked out.

For most of the 28-year-old Benavidez’s career, he has been competing in a division below his size, burning out to compete at 168 instead of where he should be at 175. As such, the fans have labeled him “weight bully”. ‘ and it’s hard to argue against that when we see him rehydrated during his fights. It resembles a cruiserweight.

Morrell is about the same size as Benavidez but with more power. He doesn’t carry a Fury-like belly like he does, as he keeps his weight down between fights and doesn’t indulge in treats.

Try Morrell’s Chin

“I definitely think I can hurt him. I’m going to play my game plan to the best of my ability to try to make him as much as possible,” David Benavidez told Sean Zitteltalking about what his approach is for his bout against WBA “regular” Light Heavyweight Champion David Morrell on February 1st.

“If the knockout comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. My game plan will be on him all night and literally try to hurt him every round. For him he gave up, I don’t know. This is the question. I want to see if David Morrell really has that heart or if he has that dog inside.

“I’m going to try to hurt him every round, so we’ll see what happens. For this fight, I feel really strong. Everything feels good right now. I’m injury free. I’ve been training really well. I’ve been training for a while and I’m ready for it,” said Benavidez.

In Benavidez’s debut at 175 against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, his punches had no effect on him in their June 15 matchup. He looked like a medium volume puncher, and he ate a lot of hard punches from Gvozdyk in that fight. Recently, Benavidez has attributed his poor performance to a whole host of different injuries, making himself sound like a walking wounded man through that battle.

David’s punches seemed to be thrown with the same power as when he fought at 168. The only difference was that he was fighting a guy the same size, and it had no effect. Benavidez’s injuries could be a sign that he is breaking down physically after a long career in the sport. He has been fighting for over 10 years and is approaching 30.

Wrestlers are usually done at this point in their careers, unless they are genetically special. For Benavidez to suffer, the multiple injuries indicate that he is reaching the end like normal fighters and that he is not one of the special ones.

Benavidez’s excuses

“I am ready to excel in my career and achieve the biggest challenges out there. I don’t want to be a hypocrite,” Benavidez said of the perception of him crying because Canelo Alvarez wouldn’t fight him and yet he’d been avoiding a fight against Morrell for two years.

Benavidez was a hypocrite because he didn’t want to fight Morrell and was doing the same thing as Canelo to him. His excuse that he had more money fights available to him is the same excuse Canelo used to not fight him. The reality is that Morrell was too dangerous, and Benavidez didn’t want to lose.

“It wasn’t that I wasn’t giving him (Morrell) the chance. It was that Caleb (Plant) was a bigger struggle than him. ‘Boo Boo’ (Demetrius Andrade) fights than him. Then, getting to 175, when I went up, he went up right behind me. So it was perfect. He got his belt (WBA “regular”) and I got mine (WBC interim light heavyweight). That’s why I say now is the perfect time to make this fight possible,” said Benavidez.

Benavidez doesn’t say he was taking other, less risky fights than the one instead of facing Morrell. Benavidez had been called up by Cuban talent for over two years, and was taking easier fights, fighting these guys:

– David Lemieux
– Kyron Davis
– Ronald Ellis