Middleweight Jose Benavidez Jr. has been added to the undercard of David Benavidez vs. David Morrell on February 1st at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The event will be shown live on PBC on Prime Video PPV.
The opponent for Benavidez Jr. (28-3-1, 19 KOs) will be announced later, but it’s likely a tune-level guy. He’s coming off a 15-month layoff since losing to Jermall Charlo by a wide 10-round unanimous decision on November 25, 2023.
The Forgotten Benavidez
The 32-year-old Benavidez Jr. has only one win in the last six years since 2018, and it’s fair to say that he’s past his prime. His last victory came against little-known Sladan Janjanin on August 12, 2023.
If they can get a halfway decent opponent for Benavidez Jr, he’ll take up the slack by creating interest in the February 1st card. His younger brother, David Benavidez, isn’t that good of a trash talker and has a bad habit of repeating himself like a broken record in one interview after the other.
Benavidez was beaten by former WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford by a 12th-round knockout on October 13, 2018, and Danny Garcia by a 12-round majority decision on July 30, 2022.
The 14-year pro Benavidez Jr. had once been considered a promising welterweight contender, but after being shot in the leg on August 22, 2016, his career hasn’t been the same. He came back from the gunshot wound to give Crawford a tough fight, but his leg limited his effectiveness in that fight.
Benavidez Jr. has got to fight a lot more often then once every 15 months if he wants to make the most of the time that he has left. Also, he’s too small and weak to be campaigning at 160 at this stage of his career. We saw that in his loss to Jermall Charlo. He didn’t possess the size or the power to be fighting at middleweight.
Jose Jr’s brother, David Benavidez, can’t punch either, but he’s gotten away with lacking power by competing in a division below his size and melting to 168 from cruiserweight. Benvidez Jr. should be doing the same thing by fighting at 147 or 140.
