Jose Benavidez Sr. says his son, David Benavidez, may move up to cruiserweight to challenge WBA and WBO champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez for his belts after David’s fight against WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion David Morrell on February 1st.
Benavidez Sr’s first choice for ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez’s next fight after Morrell is to face the winner of the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 rematch. That’s the #1 choice. However, if that fight isn’t available due to a possible trilogy, Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) will move up to cruiserweight to challenge Zurdo Ramirez for his two titles.
Overlooking Morrell?
Benavidez, 27, doesn’t seem fully engaged in the fight against Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) because he and his dad, Jose Sr, are already talking about fighting the Beterbiev-Bivol 2 winner or going up to cruiserweight to challenge Zurdo. The Cuban Morrell might be the biggest puncher in the 175-lb division, with true one-punch power, and capable of taking advantage of Benavidez’s post-up style of fighting.
Morrell is a much different type of fighter than the small, weak, and old guys that Benavidez has been feasting on at 168. During their promo face-off, Benavidez looked fat around the midsection, with a visible potbelly, looking like fat Elvis late in his career. What in the world has Benavidez been eating to put on that much weight?
Benavidez looked conscious of his fat stomach during the face-off, trying to hide it with his arm and looking protective of that target during his back-and-forth argument with Morrell. It’s not going to be easy for Benavidez to trim off that stomach that he’s put on, but that’s his burden.
In contrast, the Cuban Morrell already looked in fighting shape, ready to punch holes through Benavidez to expose him as a guy who was never as good as naive fans had thought.
In the ten years Benavidez fought at super middleweight, he was always bigger than his opponents after rehydrating, and he used his massive cruiserweight size to defeat them.
After moving up to 175 in his last fight on June 15th against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Benavidez looked weak and tired, showing no power, getting tagged hard by the 37-year-old former light heavyweight champion.
After the fight, Benavidez looked like he’d gone through a gauntlet, looking beat up, worn down, and relieved that the Nevada judges had given him a 12-round unanimous decision. Many fans felt that should have been a draw. That performance by Benavidez showed that he’s not cut out for the light heavyweight division. You have to have the power to exist among the elite-level fighters at 175, and if you’re lacking, you get walked on. We may see that happen with Benavidez when he faces Morrell.
The judges gave Benavidez the decision, but his problems in that fight will still be there. He can’t punch at 175, and his weight bullying doesn’t work because his opponents are the same size but hit much harder.
Benavidez Sr. Wants Ramirez
“Yeah, that’s what we could do right away so that’s what we’re looking for,” Jose Benavidez Sr. said to Fight Hub TV about David Benavidez potentially moving up to cruiserweight to challenge WBA and WBO champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez after the Morrell fight.
“For some reason, if this fight with the winner of Beterbiev and Bivol is not happening or whatever, we’ll definitely go to cruiserweight to fight Zurdo Ramirez, and hopefully that will happen.”
If Benavidez loses to Morrell, Jose Sr. is going to look silly afterward, given all his premature planning about David’s next move. Depending on how badly Benavidez loses to Morrell, he might have to bite the bullet and find a way to return to 168, to save his career.
Zurdo Ramirez defeated WBO cruiserweight champion Chris Billiam-Smith by a 12-round unanimous decision on November 16th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was one of the best performances of the Golden Boy-promoted Ramirez’s 15-year career.
That fight showed that Ramirez is still improving, learning, and picking new methods to win his fights. The Ramirez vs. Billiam-Smith scores were 116-112, 116-113 and 116-112.
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