David Benavidez’s promoter, Sampson Lewkowicz, says he’s up for a rematch against David Morrell (11-1, 9 KOs) if “the people wants to see it” after their exciting 12-round brawl last Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Benavidez’s Condition
After the fight, Benavidez’s badly swollen face looked like that of the loser fighter, while Morrell looked fresh and unmarked. Benavidez looked like he’d been on a battlefield and taken a lot of heavy hits from fragmentation.
One could tell that the 27-year-old Cuban southpaw Morrell’s punches were thrown with a lot more zip on them than the slapping rapid-fire shots that Benavidez threw to impress the three judges. Based on Morrell’s more powerful punches, the fight should have been scored a draw. If you’re scoring it as a professional contest and not by amateur rules, Morrell should have been the winner.
Judges’ Scores & Controversy
Benavidez defeated Morrell by a 12-round unanimous decision with the scores of 115-111, 115-111, and 118-108. However, the fight was a lot more competitive than the judges’ scores would indicate. Benavidez was hurt on several occasions by the big punches from Morrell and dropped in the 11th round.
Many questioned the referee’s decision to penalize Morrell for hitting after the bell, given that Benavidez had hit him after the round had ended. Morrell retaliated.
Lewkowicz says he’ll wait to see if the WBC mandates that the winner of the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 fight this month defend against mandatory Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) next.
If Bivol wins the rematch, a trilogy fight could happen next. That would leave Benavidez needing to wait on the sidelines.
Rematch Potential
A rematch with Morrell would make sense for Benavidez rather than him fighting one of the obscure light heavyweight contenders that the U.S. boxing public isn’t familiar with.
“I said before the fight, it would go the distance. So, this is what happened,” said Sampson Lewkowicz to Sean Zittel about the David Morrell vs. David Benavidez fight last Saturday night going 12 rounds. “Even though he [Benavide] won nine rounds, if not more, really, maybe it deserves a rematch. If the people want to see it, we’ll do it again.
“I believe the people want to see it [Benavidez vs. Morrell] again. However, sometimes the rematch doesn’t work so good. It happened with Benavidez in a rematch [with the smaller, older, and weaker Ronald Gavril [on February 17, 2018].
“At this moment, we’re waiting for the WBC to mandate the mandatory for the winner of Bivol and Beterbiev. Even though he was winning most of the rounds, it was so competitive. This is what the people want to see. It’s the same thing with ‘Pitbull’ [Cruz’s fight against Angel Fierro on the card],” said Sampson bout the Benavidez vs. Morrell fight.
