Jose Benavidez Jr. says his brother, David Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) is going to knock out WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion David Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) on February 1st. He sees Morrell as just “hype” and not the fighter that people think he is.
He thinks that Morrell is “scared” of Benavidez and feels that’s an advantage for his brother. Jose Jr. points out that Benavidez has been fighting since he was two, and that he’d done a lot of sparring with middleweight Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin during his prime years.
Morrell Scared?
“No, f***, no. They’ve said that for a lot of different fights. My brother has way more experience than this guy. He’s way more stronger,” said Jose Benavidez Jr. to Fight Hub TV when told that fans view the David Benavidez vs. David Morrell fight as a 50-50 one.
“It’s just hype. This guy [Morrell] has his hype, and you could see he’s scared. In all these past interviews and face-offs, you could tell he’s scared. He talks the big talk, but I could tell from his eyes that he’s not about what he talks.
“I’d say eight rounds, if that,” said Jose Jr, predicting an eighth-round knockout for Benavidez over Morrell. “My brother is going to take him out 100%. They say Morrell has power. What about all these other guys that they say had power? My brother was sparring [middleweight] GGG when he was in his prime when he was a kid. He was right there, putting in work,” said Jose Jr.
It shouldn’t bother Jose Jr that people view his brother, David Benavidez’s fight with Morrell as a 50-50 one. That’s a good thing because if he wins, he’ll set himself apart and show that he’s deserving of a fight against the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 winner.
Benavidez couldn’t knock out Caleb Plant or Oleksandr Gvozdyk. It’s a mistake on Jose Jr’s part to believe that his brother is some great knockout fighter because he’s not. He got over big time by fighting at 168, when he really was a 175-pounder all these years, fighting at super middleweight. Benavidez never fought anyone great and dodged the fight with Morrell for two solid years until now.
Underestimating Morrell?
“All that talk, all this power that people people say, it really doesn’t mean nothing. When you’re in there, and you’ve got a game plan, you’re going to go execute it. To me, he’s nothing special,” said Jose Jr. about Morrell. “You can’t say someone is a boogeyman when you’ve only got 10 fights [correction: 11 as a pro with a 130-2 record as an amateur in Cuba.]
The experience advantage that Benavidez has as a pro is more than equalized by what Morrell did in the amateur ranks, fighting better opposition in Cuba and around the world. He fought two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist Julio Cesar De La Cruz, as well as Osleys Iglesias. These are just some of the many talented fighters Morrell has fought during the amateurs. Morrell has more than enough experience to fight Benavidez.
“We’ll see how he hangs on when he fights my brother. He’s nothing special besides throwing power shots. You can look like a monster if you’re fighting someone that’s not on the same level. You can show out, but who has he [Morrell] fought to be called a boogeyman?” said Benavidez Jr.
Morrell hasn’t been a pro long enough to have fought anyone well-known, but he has beaten these fighters:
- Radivoje Kalajdzic
- Yamaguchi Falcao
- Kalvin Henderson
- Aidos Yerbossynuly
Benavidez’s Best wins have come against Demetrius Andrade, Caleb Plant, Oleksandr Gvozdyk and David Lemieux. Most of those guys were old when he fought them. Plant had been knocked out by Canelo Alvarez in 2021, so beating him wasn’t a great accomplishment.
