David Benavidez’s fat appearance during his recent promo with David Morrell has fans questioning whether his weight will be a problem for him during preparation for their February 1st light heavyweight fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
‘The Mexican Monster,’ Benavidez has been letting himself go in between fights, eating well, and may catch up to him against Morrell. It would be a pity if Benavidez is drained from the dramatic weight loss that he’s going to need to undertake to lose the pounds.
Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) showed up in woeful shape for the promo shoot, looking in the neighborhood of 220 lbs. That weight is going to need to come off in the next 63 days for WBC interim light heavyweight champion Benavidez to be ready to challenge Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) for his WBC interim title.
Benavidez’s Tyson Fury-esque body is going to need to be reduced in size during the next two months for him to have any kind of chance against the in-shape Cuban Morrell. His body looked like a combination of Fury and a late Elvis Presley. You can only imagine what Benavide has been eating to pack on those pounds.
It wouldn’t be such a big deal if Benavidez hadn’t already shown stamina problems in his last fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15th. In that fight, Gvozdyk looked sluggish and weak, gassing out after six rounds and taking a pounding.
All the extra weight that Benavidez had put on slowed him down, and he hadn’t gained any extra muscle for the pounds that he’d packed on.
Interestingly, fans still pick Benavidez to defeat Morrell, judging by how the Mexican Monster performed when he was fighting at 168. If one saw Benavidez’s debut at 175 against Gvozdyk, you’d not be picking him to defeat Morrell because he was awful.
In the first half of the contest, Benavidez threw many shots with little power, but in the second part of the fight, he was bludgeoned by Gvozdyk. He clearly lost the last six rounds, but the judges still gave him the win.
“Casuals don’t know how an 11-0 guy [Morrell] can go and fight a 29-0 when it’s going to be a good fight,” said Chris Algieri to Probox TV, talking about the David Benavidez vs. David Morrell fight on February 1st.
“This is a fantastic matchup. This is one that is potentially one for the ages. You’ve got two guys in their prime. Two guys that are willing to take a risk against each other with huge opportunities with the winner of this fight.”
The casual boxing fans aren’t aware that Morrell had a long amateur career in Cuba and more experience than Benavidez. They only see Morrell’s 11 fights, and figure he’s just starting out. He had fought better competition in the amateurs than Benavidez has during the pros.
Benavidez’s only advantage is his experience fighting longer fights of 10 to 12 rounds. That may have helped him if they were still fighting at 168 but not at 175. As I said, he was completely gassed out after six rounds against Gvozdyk last June.
“This is a boxing fan’s fight. If you watch boxing, you know how good a fight this is,” said Paulie Malignaggi about the Morrell vs. Benavidez fight. “These two guys had to leave the super middleweight division to get a title shot at the higher weight class.
“I don’t think it’s as much of a problem at light heavyweight because you have two of the best fighters in the division contesting for a light heavyweight title.”
“I don’t think the winner of this fight will go directly to the winner of Beterbiev-Bivol just because there are so many options that can happen,” said Algieri, doubting whether the winner of the Morrell vs. Benavidez fight will get a straight shot against the rematch winner between undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol from their fight on February 22nd.
“For Joshua Buatsi or Anthony Yarde to step in as an opponent for one of these guys.”
