By Sean Jones: Eddie Hearn says Canelo Alvarez’s hardest fight out there for him at 168 is David Morrell Jr, NOT David Benavidez.
Hearn rates Morrell (9-0, 8 KOs) highly and believes he’d defeat Benavidez if that fight happens, which he doesn’t think it will this year due to the high risk the Cuban talent presents for the ‘Mexican Monster.’
With Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) signing a three-fight deal with PBC today, he’ll be fighting Jermall Charlo on September 16th in the first bout.
The next two could come down to Errol Spence and potentially Benavidez if he does something to set himself apart. That would mean he must gather his courage and take on Morrell in an all-or-nothing gamble.
Benavidez seems afraid of Morrell, and his dad is in the same boat. They obviously realize that Morrell is a serious threat, so they’re going to swerve him.
Right now, Benavidez needs to show the boxing world that he’s Canelo’s best option at 168, and he can do that by fighting WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion Morrell.
Benavidez and his dad need to stop making excuses for why they can’t fight Morrell and get it over with. If they’re not good enough, it won’t be the of the road.
Benavidez can pick up the broken pieces of his career by moving to 175 and starting over. He’s young enough at 26 to wait out 38-year-old IBF/WBC/WBO light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev to capture one of those belts. It wouldn’t be advisable for Benavidez to take on WBA 175-lb champion Dmitry Bivol.
Benavidez’s dad has talked of wanting him to go up to 175 to fight Bivol if he can’t get a fight against Canelo, but he needs to put that idea out of his head.
Benavidez is too much like Gilberto Ramirez, and Bivol would easily dominate him and wreck what’s left of his career afteer he loses to Morrell.
Benavidez may be better at 175. He’s a big 168-pounder. I’d love to talk to David Benavidez. I don’t know his position with Sampson and those guys, but I’ve got some big fights for him. I’m sure they have as well, but we’ll see. I love David Benavidez against Bivol, ” said Eddie Hearn to Fighthype, reacting to being told that Benavidez’s dad, Jose Sr, is interested in a clash against WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol.
“There’s talk of a Morrell fight. I don’t believe in a million years that Benavidez will be fighting Morrell. If he does, oh. Yeah, this year. If he does, because the guy [Morrell] is 9-0, and he’s very good.
“We know Morrell. We know how good Morrell is. Do you honestly think that the casual fan on the street can walk out, ‘Benavidez against Morrell?’ They might not even know who Benavidez is, but Morrell is a very good fighter, a very good fighter.
“Listen, I’ll be honest with you. If I represented David Benavidez, I wouldn’t want him to fight David Morrell. Probably Morrell,” said Hearn when asked who wins a fight between Benavidez and Morrell.
“I rate David Benavidez. I think he’s a great fighter, but Morrell is a very, very, very good fighter. I’m not even thinking about a Morrell-Canelo fight because that’s not even been discussed. So if you play out everybody in the division, maybe Morrell is Canelo’s toughest fight.
“Because if you watch Morrell and if you watch Morrell from the amateurs, you know this kid is a very special fighter,” said Hearn when asked why he sees Morrell beating Benavidez.
It should be interesting to see who the last man standing is at 168 after the smoke clears. Hopefully, Benavidez isn’t ducking Morrell because that would give the Cuban the #1 spot by default.
