Trainer Stephen Edwards believes David Morrell does not have the IQ to defeat interim WBC light heavyweight champion David Benavidez in their February 1 fight.
Stephen believes WBA 'regular' 175-pound champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) is too reliant on his power and explosiveness and has no bag of tricks to fall back on if it doesn't work out not.
Edwards notes that Morrell had issues in his fight against Radivoje Kalajdzic on August 3 in his debut at 175, but was never in danger of losing. Indeed, Morrell dominated every round of the fight, but he occasionally took big blows from Hot Rod, who knows how to strike.
This guy has better power than Benavidez, and Morrell had to be careful at times. Most of the time, he would hit Hot Rod at will with hard blows and make him hurt repeatedly.
Stephen faced “The Mexican Monster” Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) when he beat fellow fighter Caleb Plant last year on March 25, 2023, and it didn't work out well for them. He came away from this fight impressed by Benavidez.
Plant was too weak and too small for Benavidez, who looked like a heavyweight inside the ring during this fight.
Morrell vs. Benavidez will headline February 1 on PBC on Main video PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. This is the first fight in Benavidez's 11-year career where he faces someone in a 50-50 fight who has a chance of beating him.
So far, he has come close to an opponent who had a chance to beat him in his last fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk in his debut at 175 on June 15. Benavidez tired early in this fight and was really hammered by Gvozdyk from the 7th to the 12th round.
“It’s a fight that David Morrell can win, but I don’t know if he will win,” Stephen Edwards said. Combathype about the David Benavidez vs. David Morrell fight on February 1st. “He was having trouble with 'Hot Rod,' but he wasn't losing.
“There's a difference when you go back to your corner, and you don't know if you're standing. I need to see what his adjustments look like when he doesn't win the fight or when the other guy puts mental pressure on him where it starts to create a little doubt.
“I’m very impressed with David Morrell, but he kind of relies on his strength, strength and size. He's way too big to fight at 168. He's a big guy. I'm very impressed with him, but a lot of the guys he fought were so much smaller than him that he doesn't need to go into his bag of tricks to rely on other things like his IQ.
Like Benavidez, Morrell was too big for the 168-pound division, but he doesn't fight at 175 pounds. Both fought against smaller fighters at super middleweight. It's not just Morrell who has fought a lot of little guys. Benavidez was always bigger than his opponents in the 11 years he fought at 168.
“I'm not saying he doesn't have it, but I haven't seen it yet,” Edwarda said of Morrell's ring IQ. “I’m going to choose David Benavidez. I think his IQ is very underrated. His defense is underrated. People say he's easy to hit, but when you fight like him, you're going to get hit when you walk up to a guy. Plus, he's a big guy, but he takes a lot of hits.
“He’s really good at hitting with you.” He can counterattack. He is very aware of his defense. He's not here letting his head roll all over the place. When you see him get hit, watch him very closely. Even when he is touched, he raises his hands. So the shots are going to have to go through his gloves. He diverts a lot of the power,” Edwards said of Benavidez.
#Morrells #Power #Trainer #Questions #Fighters #Ring #Benavidez #Clash