David Morrell’s manager, Luis Decubas Sr, says the former Cuban star possesses “Sonny Liston hands” and that David Benavidez is “made to order” for him because he’ll stand in front of him on Saturday night. The two fighters will fight on February 1st at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The event will be shown live on PBC on Prime Video PPV for $79.95.
(Credit: Ryan Hafey/Premier Boxing Champions}
“Liston-like Power”
Decubas feels that Benavidez is “not hard to hit,” and with Morrell’s Liston-like heavyweight power, he will damage him. He thinks that if Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) can take Morrell’s hard punches for 12 rounds, that would say a lot about him, and he would pick him to beat anyone in the light heavyweight division.
Benavidez has talked about his plans to beat Morrell with combination punching, which means he will be in the pocket waiting to be hit. It will be interesting to see which of the two fighters can score a knockout.
“I’m very confident in this fight. The guy [Benavidez] is made to order for Morrell. He comes forward. He’s not bad defensively, but he’s not hard to hit,” said manager Luis de Cubas Sr. to Sean Zittel about David Benavidez being the ideal guy for his fighter David Morrell.
“He’s going to find out when he gets hit with a full-fledged light heavyweight [Morrell] what it’s like because Morrell beat [two-time Olympic gold medalist Julio Cesar] La Cruz in Cuba when he was 17 years old and was 178 lbs.
“I’m the one that brought him down to 168 because we had the opportunity for Lennox Allen [in 2020], and we took the opportunity and won the title. We tried to get him [Benavidez] first at 168. We couldn’t.
“Thank God, we moved up to 175, and after the last performance [against Radivoje Kalajdzic] that people saw, maybe that’s the reason they [Team Benavidez] fought us, which is great. I know the guy we fought wasn’t 28-2. He was 29-1 because he [deserved to] beat [Marcus] Browne [on April 16, 2016].
If not for Morrell’s last performance against Kalajdzic, he likely wouldn’t have gotten the fight against Benavidez. That performance seems to have given Team Benavidez confidence that they can win. Before that, they weren’t showing interest, perhaps because Morrell destroyed everybody he faced.
Kalajdzic survived Morrell by using movement and showing a strong chin. If he had stood in front of him the entire fight, he likely would have been blown out like the others.
“The guy that Benavidez fought [Oleksandr Gvozdyk] at light heavyweight was 37 years old. He fought three times in seven years. The guy we fought was active. The guy was a good mover. He moved around, and we had to look for him,” said DeCubas about Kalajdzic using movement in his fight against Morrell on August 3rd.
“Benavidez isn’t going to move around. He’s going to be right there in front of us, and I’m very confident. I will say one thing to the fans. If Benavidez can take this kid’s punches for 12 rounds, I’m going to respect Benavidez a lot, and I would favor him over any light heavyweight in the world.”
If Morrell knocks out Benavidez, it would shock a lot of fans, who feel that he’s invincible right now. Many of them have failed to look at the quality of the opposition that Benavidez has fought through his 12-year career to say, ‘A-ha, so that’s why Benavidez has looked so good. He’s been fighting scrubs.’
“Holes Through Walls”
“This guy [Morrell] punches holes through walls. He’s got Sonny Liston hands, and he’s a thumper. Anywhere with one punch, he can knock you out. So, I’m very confident in the fight. It’s a great opportunity for us, and the kid is very exciting,” said Decubas Sr.
Morrell looks like he’s the biggest puncher in the light heavyweight division. You can tell from watching Morrell’s punches in his win over Kalajdzic that he has more power than Artur Beterbiev, who many fans view as the biggest puncher. Morrell hits harder but doesn’t try to overwhelm his opponents like Beterbiev does. He focuses more on knocking them out with single shots.
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