Coach Stephen Edwards feels that David Morrell doesn’t possess the ring IQ to defeat WBC interim mild heavyweight champion David Benavidez of their struggle on February 1st.
Stephen thinks that WBA ‘common’ 175-lb champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) relies upon an excessive amount of on his energy and explosiveness and doesn’t have a bag of tips he can depend on if that doesn’t work.
Edwards notes that Morrell had issues in his struggle towards Radivoje Kalajdzic on August third in his debut at 175, however he was by no means vulnerable to dropping. Certainly, Morrell dominated each spherical of the struggle, however he took occasional large pictures by Scorching Rod, who can punch.
This man has higher energy than Benavidez, and Morrell needed to be cautious at occasions. Largely, he was nailing Scorching Rod at will with laborious pictures and had him damage a number of occasions.
Stephen went up towards ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) when he defeated his fighter Caleb Plant final yr on March 25, 2023, and it didn’t work out properly for them. He got here away from that struggle impressed with Benavidez.
Plant was too weak and small for Benavidez, who appeared like a cruiserweight contained in the ring in that struggle,
Morrell vs. Benavidez will headline on February 1 on PBC on Prime Video PPV on the T-Cellular Area in Las Vegas. That is the primary struggle of Benavidez’s 11-year profession the place he’s dealing with somebody in a 50-50 struggle that has a shot at beating him.
The closest he got here so far to an opponent that had an opportunity of beating him was in his final struggle towards Oleksandr Gvozdyk in his debut at 175 on June fifteenth. Benavidez obtained drained early in that struggle and actually obtained hammered by Gvozdyk from rounds 7 by 12.
“It is a struggle that David Morrell can win, however I don’t know if he’ll win,” mentioned Stephen Edwards to Fighthype in regards to the David Benavidez vs. David Morrell struggle on February 1. “He had issues with ‘Scorching Rod,’ however he wasn’t dropping.
“There’s a distinction once you return to your nook, and also you don’t know in case you’re up. I’ve to see what his changes are like when he’s not profitable the struggle or when the opposite man is placing psychological strain on him the place it’s beginning to create somewhat little bit of doubt.
“I’m very impressed with David Morrell, however he form of depends on his forcefulness, his power, and his dimension. He’s approach too large to be combating at 168. He’s an enormous man. I’m very impressed with him, however quite a lot of the fellows he was combating had been a lot smaller than him the place he doesn’t have to enter his bag of tips to depend on different issues like his IQ.
Like Benavidez, Morrell was too large for the 168-lb division, however he’s not combating at 175. Each of them fought towards smaller fighters at tremendous middleweight. It wasn’t simply Morrell who fought quite a lot of smaller guys. Benavidez was at all times larger than his opponents in the course of the 11 years he fought at 168.
“I’m not saying he doesn’t have it, however I haven’t seen it but,” mentioned Edwarda bout Morrell’s ring IQ. “I’m going to select David Benavidez. I believe his IQ may be very underrated. His protection is underrated. Individuals say he’s straightforward to hit, however once you struggle like he fights, you’re going to get hit once you’re strolling to a man. Plus, he’s an enormous man, however he catches quite a lot of punches.
“He’s actually good at punching with you. He can counterpunch. He’s very acutely aware of his protection. He’s not in there letting his head get snapped again everywhere. If you see him get hit take a look at him actual shut. Even when he does get hit, his palms are up. So, the punches are going to should undergo his gloves. He’s deflecting quite a lot of the ability,” mentioned Edwards about Benavidez.
