David Morrell says he’s not worried about being knocked out by David Benavidez because he’s a volume puncher for their fight on February 1st. Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) wins his fights by landing an accumulation of shots, and that approach won’t work against the 26-year-old Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) because he has mobility.
(Credit: Esther Lin and Ryan Hafey/Premier Boxing Champions)
Morrell will be defending his WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight title against WBC interim champ Benavidez on PBC on Prime Video PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“It doesn’t phase me because he’s not some kind of knockout artist that is going to get you with one punch. He is the kind of fighter that wins with an accumulation of the punches he throws,” said David Morrell to the media when asked if he’s worried about David Benavidez’s power for their February 1st fight.
Benavidez needs to worry about Morell’s power because if he lands flush, he will be hurt and possibly knocked out. For Benavidez to score a knockout against Morrell, he’ll need to throw a lot of punches without getting clipped.
In Benavidez’s last fight against 37-year-old Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15th, he averaged 62.4 punches thrown per round in his 12-round unanimous decision.
Punch stats for Benavidez-Gvozdyk
– Benavidez: 270 of 749 punches for 36%
– Gvozdyk: 223 of 675 punches 33%
“We’ve been focusing on conditioning for six weeks. Now, we’re focused on building up our strength. We’re going to be in great shape on February 1st.
“To the people. In my #3 fight, everybody said, ‘You’re not ready.’ I don’t know if you remember. Here in California, too,” said Morrell about people saying he wasn’t ready to fight then unbeaten, more experienced Lennox Allen on August 8, 2020 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California.
It’s a much different story for Morrell to be fighting ‘The Mexican Monster’ David Benavidez in his 11th pro fight compared to when he was fighting Lennox Allen in his third pro fight four years ago. Benavidez is more formidable and has more experience. I wouldn’t go overboard and say that Benavidez has fought great competition because he surely hasn’t.
The best guy that he’s beaten is Caleb Plant, and that was after Canelo Alvarez had knocked him out. Other than Plant, the best fighter Benavidez has on his resume is 35-year-old Demetrius Andrade, but he was as old as the hills and had no business fighting at 168 against what was essentially a boiled-down light heavyweight.
Morrell beat Allen by a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision with scores of 118-110, 119-109, and 120-108. That fight was one of Morrell’s easiest of his career.
“Lennox Allen, everybody said, ‘You’re not ready for 12 rounds, you’re not ready for nothing. Look, champion in the third fight [of Morrell’s career], 12 rounds. Now, it’s the same [with fighting Benavidez and people saying he’s NOT ready]. My mentality is this.
“I look at the people who say I can’t do it. It’s okay. Good for you. Nothing” said Morrell about his thoughts on being the underdog against Benavidez. “It’s boxing. It’s not going to affect my mindset.”
Fans are saying the same thing to Morrell now with him heading into the Benavidez fight, saying he’s not ready, just like they did when he was going into his match against Lennox Allen four years ago in 2020. Allen was a far more experienced fighter with 22 fights.
“Why? Because I was playing a soccer game on my phone? What he was saying to me was pointless. I wasn’t interested,” said Morrell when asked about Benavidez, saying that he looked nervous during the press conference and was going on Instagram due to his nerves.
It seemed like Benavidez was purposefully trying to upset Morrell by saying that he was looking nervous during the press conference so that he could get the upper hand on him and use that.
