Benavidez stock went DOWN

Morrell is not bad though. I believe he can and will come again. He just ran into David Benavidez.

 

I know what I am talking about.

 

Just use your eyes.

 

Yeah, well so do I. I fought back in the 80's and 90's and trained fighter's for years. Beterbiev and Bivol both have far deeper amateur backgrounds, have fought at light heavyweight for a lot longer and are clearly superior to Benavidez. I like Benavidez but he doesn't have the power that Beterbiev has or the boxing IQ of Bivol. He is talented fighter as he probed again last Saturday, but Bivol and Beterbiev are on another level.

 

Beterbiev was not even a level above Anthony, yarde who he went life and death with before stopping him late. He was down on the cards vs him and was getting pieced up badly during the fight, and he is now 3 years older. Yarde is not in Davids class as a fighter, he is just a basically slugger with some pop. Completely writing off Benavidez against either Bivol or Beterbiev is not thinking logically at all. He has the tools and skills to beat them both.

 

I feel he needs to improve.

 

*shells up for an entire 15 punch combination without attempting even 1 counter punch*

 

It’s because of how raw talented he is that I rate this win quite high. He is tough, fast, powerful, and does some things quite skillfully. He just wasn’t prepared for a fight with these many dimensions. But I bet he learned more from this fight than the rest of his pro career combined. He will be around at top level for a while.

 

Morrell looks like he actually regressed a lot in his last two fights. If you just saw Morrell's last two fights only you would never assume he was was a top fighter at all.

 

But I can see why he had the trouble he had, and I mentioned it pre fight. I expected him to struggle as he did.
The knockdown was a result of the front foot battle he was losing but was used to always winning in other fights. Benavidez kept putting his lead foot outside of Morrel’s, preventing him from attacking his opponents left side, where he gets the angle for his straight lefts and right hooks. Benavidez squared stance and left hook kept Morrel in front of him.

 

Yeah but even Hot Rod made him look basic too.

 

I disagree. boxing has always been a niche sport with only a handful of stars. That remains the same.

The Saudis have definitely helped boxing in the uk but I don’t see a fountain of fights we craved for that have surpassed what’s been made in the past by some extraordinary amount.

A lot of big fights were getting made and some were not, as is still the case. I would assume ppv numbers have increased in the uk.

I’ve been involved in boxing my whole life, hbo dropping boxing made a bigger difference than the Saudis have. They have not filled the whole hbo left.

 

I would have to watch that fight to comment on what his problem was there. But with his limited experience it’s not surprising that new situations could cause him problems. But the talent and ability to fight at elite level is there, he just needs to learn the formulas and apply them.

 

I won't write him completely off but he just doesn't look that good like a level below someone like Jean Pascal maybe just being honest with you. At least Jean Pascal still let his hands go even if he was overmatched. He really needs to think about dropping down to 168 too. He hasn't looked good at 175 at all.