Trainer Stephen Edwards believes David Morrell does not have the ring IQ to defeat WBC interim light heavyweight champion David Benavidez in their fight on February 1.
Stephen thinks WBA 'regular' 175lb champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) relies too much on his power and explosiveness and doesn't have a bag of tricks to fall back on if that doesn't work out.
Edwards notes that Morrell struggled against Radivoj Kalajdzic on Aug. 3 in his debut at 175, but was never in danger of losing. Indeed, Morrell dominated every round of the fight, but occasionally took big hits from Hot Rod, who can punch.
This guy has more power than Benavidez and Morrell had to be careful at times. He mostly hammered Hot Rod to his heart's content with heavy punches and injured him several times.
Stephen faced 'Mexican Monster' Benavidez (29-0, 24 KO) when he defeated his fighter Caleb Plant last year on March 25, 2023, and it did not go well for them. He came out of that fight impressed with Benavidez.
Plant was too weak and small for Benavidez, who in that fight in the ring looked like a cruiserweight,
Morrell vs. Benavidez will headline February 1st at PBC 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 that can beat him.
The closest he ever came to an opponent who had a chance to beat him was in his last fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk in his debut at 175 on June 15th. Benavidez got tired early in that fight and Gvozdyk really wore him down from the 7th to the 12th round.
“This is a fight that David Morrell can win, but I don't know if he will win,” said Stephen Edwards Fighthype about the David Benavidez vs. David Morrell fight on February 1st. “He had problems with 'Hot Rod', but he didn't lose.
“There is a difference when you go back to your corner and you don't know if you are up there. I need to see what his adjustments are like when he's not winning a fight or when the other guy is putting mental pressure on him that starts to create a little doubt.
“I'm very impressed with David Morrell, but he kind of relies on his strength, power and size. He's too big to fight at 168. He's a big guy. I'm very impressed with him, but a lot of the guys he's fought have been so much smaller than him that he doesn't have to go into his bag of tricks to rely on other things like his IQ.
Like Benavidez, Morrell was too big for the 168 lb division, but he doesn't fight at 175. Both fought smaller fighters in the super middleweight division. It wasn't just Morrell who fought a lot of smaller guys. Benavidez was always bigger than his opponents during the 11 years he fought at 168.
“I'm not saying it's not there, but I haven't seen it yet,” Edwarda said of Morrell's ring IQ. “I will choose David Benavidez. I think his IQ is highly underestimated. His defense is underrated. People say he's easy to hit, but when you fight like he fights, you're going to get hit as you walk towards the 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 there and he doesn't let his head break all over the place. When you see it hit, take a close look at it. Even when he gets hit, his hands are up. So the shots will have to go through his gloves. He deflects a lot of power,” Edwards said of Benavidez.
