Personally I think Benavidez’s boxing skills, ring IQ, and defense are much better than given credit. Much more than your typical plodding bullying type fighter but someone who slowly breaks you down round after round. He’s also defensively responsible with his high guard and knows when to step back before coming in. Not the prettiest style to watch but still a damn good hardened fighter who is going to be tough to beat for most fighters. Very relentless fighter with a good ring IQ. That being said he isn’t unbeatable and his biggest flaw seems to be his stamina which is why I still favor Bivol and Beterbiev to beat him should he face either of them.
I have been saying this for a long time. Many people think he is just a bigger version of margarito when in reality he is quite an intelligent pressure fighter who can adjust to his opponent and is quite calculating. He did not blindly just come forward this fight, he fought pretty smart. His stamina did not look as good as at 168 but it looked decent. It was just a tough fight.
Benavidez gets labeled as easy to hit, flat foot, and with no head movement. Morrel has fast hands and is pretty accurate yet he could not land his power.
I don’t see the Margarito connection at all. Benavidez has more dimensions than him. If anything I see more similarities to Jeff Fenech.
Some people are conditioned to see head movement and movement as defense, but kinda forgot blocking and parrying. Benavidez has better defense than Morrell. He was able to block most of Morrell's headshots, while Morrell couldn't stop the Benavidez's looping right hand or his uppercut. There are a number of good fighters who make effective use of parrying like GGG, Benavidez and Bivol. That's why Canelo couldn't land many effective shots on a 40 year old GGG.
I liked his defense vs the Nail. He gets the headlines with his volume and power but that fight it was his defense that stuck out for me.
Yeah there are similarities to Fenech with the pressure fighting and the pace Benavidez sets. Even though Morell had his moments Benavidez was the one controlling the pace which is something Fenech did really well.
Yes he has really good use of the high guard and can slip punches better than he gets credit for He can't really fight off the back foot though
