By Kleberly Mendoza
Dec 24, 2024, 3:00 PM EST
The famous trainer Stephen Edwards chose David Benavídez as your favorite to win the fight he will star in against David Morrell Jr. on February 1 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
In an interview with FightHype, Edwards explained that he is impressed with what he has seen from Morrell Jr., but believes that Benavidez’s IQ and defense It is much better than that of the Cuban.
“This is a fight that David Morrell can win, but I don’t know if he will win. (…) I am very impressed with David Morrell, but he depends on his strength, his forcefulness and his size. He’s too big to fight at 168. He’s a big guy. I’m very impressed with him, but a lot of the guys he was fighting were a lot smaller than him, so he doesn’t have to resort to his bag of tricks to rely on other things like his IQ. “I’m not saying I don’t have it, but I haven’t seen it yet,” he said.
“I’m going to choose David Benavídez. I think his IQ is highly underestimated. His defense is underrated. People say he’s easy to hit, but when you fight like he fights, you’re going to get hit when you get close to a guy. Plus, he’s a big guy, but he catches a lot of hits. He is very good at hitting. You can fight back. He is very aware of his defense. He doesn’t let his head move back all over the place. When you see him take a hit, watch him closely. Even when he gets hit, he has his hands up. Therefore, the blows will have to go through his gloves. “It is diverting a lot of the power,” he added.
According to expert forecasts, The fight will be very close and competitive. Some believe Benavidez has a slight advantage due to his experience, but others say Morrell Jr. can end his undefeated record.
The Mexican Monster will do this fight with the Cuban to defend his position as mandatory challenger of the category, since he could face the winner of the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol. The rivalry with Morrell was born when both belonged to super middleweight and now the fighters will settle their differences at 175 pounds.
In his last fight, Benavídez earned the position of WBC mandatory challenger by winning the interim title of the category in a tough fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk. Instead, Morrell He also debuted with a victory at 175 pounds by defeating Radivoje Kalajdzic by unanimous decision. for the WBA secondary belt.
David Benavídez, 27, became interim light heavyweight champion of the World Boxing Council (WBC) by defeating Oleksandr Gvozdyk in his debut in the category. The Mexican Monster He has a record of 29 wins, 24 of them on the fast track and no setbacks in his professional career.
For his part, David Morrell Jr., 26, is the regular 175-pound champion of the World Boxing Association (WBA). The Cuban fighter alone He has 11 fights as a professional and has won them allnine of them by knockout.
Keep reading:
· Jaime Munguía predicts who will win Benavídez vs. Morrell
· David Morrell assures that Benavídez will be an easy fight
· Gabriel Rosado predicts who could win Benavídez vs. Morrell