The WBC has confirmed that the winner of next month’s fight between David Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) and David Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) will be the “mandatory challenger” for the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 winner.
WBC Mandate
If Bivol is victorious in his rematch with undisputed light heavyweight champion Beterbiev, there’s the possibility they’ll fight a trilogy next. That means the Benavidez-Morrell winner must wait until after the third Beterbiev-Bivol fight before they get a crack at the four belts.
It will depend on what Turki Al-Sheikh wants to do. If he wants to see an immediate third fight between Beterbiev and Bivol, that will happen.
“Undisputed champion Artur Beterbiev will fight a rematch with Dmitry Bivol on February 22 in Riyadh. Interim champion David Benavidez will fight David Morrell on February 1. The winner will be the mandatory challenger of the division to fight the winner of Beterbiev vs. Bivol,” per WBC.
Power at 175?
“I hope it happens. I don’t think it’ll happen, no,” said David Benavidez to the PPV channel about his hopes that he can fight Canelo Alvarez. “A lot of people ask me this question, ‘When are you going to fight?’ I don’t know.
“It’s up to Canelo. If he wants to make the fight, we can make it happen. Everybody knows it’s the biggest fight in boxing. So, I’m ready for whenever that time comes.
This is the same reason I took this fight [David Morrell]. I was already preparing for a hard fight in my head, I think there’s no better experience to get than going against these hard fighters. This is going to get me ready for whatever comes next.
“I want to be one of the most dangerous fighters in boxing. I want to be one of those fighters that you remember, like [Gennadiy] Golovkin and Julio Cesar Chavez. Those are the type of fighters I want to be. I don’t back down from nobody. I’m not scared of nobody, and this is a way I can prove it,” said Benavidez.
Benavidez will never be in the league of Gennadiy Golovkin or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr because he doesn’t possess power. Morrell is more of a Golovkin-level fighter than Benavidez. ‘The Mexican Monster’ is a volume puncher, and he won’t become a power guy at 175. At 28, he won’t suddenly find power that was never there.
Every fighter wants to be blessed with Beterbiev-level power, but those are special people who only come around occasionally. Benavidez is still a good basic volume guy and can carve out a good living, even if he’s knocked out by the big puncher Morrell on February 1st. You must be born with the genetics for power, and Benavidez wasn’t blessed in that department.
Underrated Skills
“I feel like I have various aspects of my game that’s underrated.IQ is one of them. Defense is another one of them. The third one is my power. People, I don’t know what it is about them. They think just because I like to eat and I get a little fluffy off-season that, I have no power.
“That all changes when they get in the ring with me. So, I think everything I do is underrated. I think I’m not a good fighter until they get in the ring with me and see, ‘Oh, this guy is a problem,’” said Benavidez.
Unfortunately, he gives no examples of fighters who didn’t think he was good until they got in the ring with him. Benavidez’s resume is weak, and he’s never fought any high-level fighters during his 12-year professional career. So, when he talks about fighters saying, ‘This guy is a problem,’ it’s not saying anything because he’s faced B—and C-level opposition throughout his career.
Benavidez’s best wins:
– Oleksandr Gvozdyk: 37 and recently out of 4-year retirement
– Demetrius Andrade: 36
– Caleb Plant: Post-Canelo knockout loss
– Anthony Dirrell: 38
– David Lemieux: Journeyman
– Roamer Alexis Angulo: Ditto
– Ronald Ellis
– Ronald Gavril
These are Benavidez’s best wins, and there’s no one there that you can say is a good enough fighter to make a big deal about him. He pumps himself up as being elite, but who has he beaten to prove it? Benavidez waited three years to fight Morrell after he was called out in 2022, and you have to wonder why. He didn’t want to lose to the Cuban.
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