Benavidez is nothing special in terms of skills

ydksab.

 

When you think one of the most uniquely skilled fighters in the sport is not very skilled, you shouldn't talk about boxing.

 

Benavidez has great skills. I think his best attribute is his temperament - rarely is he flustered, and he is always looking to attack. Moreover, his defense is underrated, and he doesn't get hit much. He is very good at what he does.

He may struggle with a bigger, stronger boxer/puncher like Opetaia though.

 

Benavidez is a good fighter but he is being manufactured into a star. The real top guys like Bivol, Opetaia and probably even 41 year old Beterbiev still beat him.

 

I'm not sure what the argument is here. Benavidez is not skilled because the #1 fighter in the world in the division above him, a division he's not even fought in yet, would beat him? Or because he would lose to Bivol? Who is a top 5 P4P fighter?

Plant was not competitive against Benavidez; he was on his bike from the beginning, and if he wasn't excessively holding from round 9 onwards and the referee actually did something about it, he would've been beaten in the same fashion as Yarde. He also controlled the Gvodzyk fight, which was his first in the new weight class. He won that fight 9-3 on most people's cards; a few people had it wider. He didn't struggle with either of them; neither fight was competitive, especially the Plant one. It might have seemed competitive because his power didn't carry, but he completely outboxed both.

Judging by your username, do you think Usyk's first outing against Derek Chisora, a B-rate HW, fits the same category? Most people had that 9-3, but some had it closer. I actually had it wider, but a fighter often needs to grow into a weight class. Is Usyk nothing special because Chisora made a few rounds competitive against him?

Offensively, I would argue that Benavidez is the most complete combination puncher in the sport, P4P, and his speed is up there, P4P, given his size and build. Defensively, he could tighten up, and he doesn't move his head enough, but to say he is nothing special is a lazy statement, I think. Most people have him in the top 10 P4P. Average fighters don't end up in that list.

 

Clearly Breadman has gone too far here, but Benevidez is skilled.

He's creative with his offense and he's pretty accurate as well. He also has an interesting and quite effective guard. He keeps it further out than most fighters and moves it around to pick off shots.

Think about it this way. If Canelo wasn't such a female dog, Benevidez would have dogwalked him at 168 and he'd have been Undisputed there. No chance in hell Crawford would have wanted anything to do with that. He moves up to 175 and cleanly beats a former Olympian and all around great boxer in Gvozdyk who has been a stablemate with Loma and Usyk. He then beats Morrell up. Then he smokes Yarde. Not saying he beats him, but it would be a highly competitive fight with Bivol. But we all know Bivol will want nothing to do with that fight.

For a guy who ain't skilled he sure does have a lot of people running scared.

 

Wow, I couldn't disagree more...David is good for boxing!!

 

Actually curious to see how he does against Zurdo. Bivol beat him so easily that David has a lot of pressure to completely dominate.

 

I like Benavidez but I would still like to see him in there with an A level opponent. As all his wins so far are against B Level opposition or fighters that are faded like Gvozdyk.

But to be fair Benavidez did try and fight Canelo who was an A level opponent and Canelo ducked him so not much he can do about that.

Benavidez is good for boxing with his style and he makes for exciting fights. But he has slow feet and his defence can be quite leaky.

Bivol's footwork is too good and he would constantly make Benavidez reset not allowing him to fire off those rapid fire combinations.

Benavidez vs Beterbiev would be a war but Beterbiev is getting on now and Benavidez's youth might be the deciding factor.

I don't know enough about Opetaia as I've only seen his fights vs Briedis.

 

David Benavidez's skills aren't anything special since he's more of a constant pressure workmanlike fighter who relies on his hand speed and physical strength to break his opponents down. He has a decent enough defense although still not hard to hit and good enough pop to hurt his opponents consistently. But when it comes to his ring IQ I think he's actually very underrated in that aspect. Not your typical face first one dimensional brawler but also someone that's going to be hard night for anyone.

 

Most people here don’t call anyone “skilled” unless they have the generic “jab and move” style.

Benavidez is one of the most technical close-range fighters today.

 

He’s just a world champion who has beat multiple very good fighters… Nothing special at all!

 

Not sure what your point is really. World champions don't reach that level without having some technical ability. They might eschew it for other areas they excel in being work rate or what ever but he's defo got skills.
Would he get beat by Bivol - he might Bivol is a top tier fighter but Benavidez seems to be carrying his power, stamin and speed through the weights so it's not a forgone conclusion would be an excellent fight.