By Sean Jones: Promoter Sampson Lewkowicz says WBA ‘regular” super middleweight champion David Morrell Jr and David Benavidez have agreed to a fight for October or November. The fight will be televised on Showtime PPV.
WBA ‘regular’ 168-lb champion Morrell (9-0, 8 KOs), who has recently emerged as the new shark in the super middleweight division, could ruin Benavidez’s long-held plans on getting a big-paying fight against Canelo Alvarez.
Lewkowicz says he sees Benavidez & Morrell both knocking out Canelo at his point, and he’s not joking. Those guys are fighting on a much higher level than Canelo, and they’d be all over him if given a chance.
If Morrell, 25, defeats Benavidez, we could have the new star in the 168-lb division, a guy that will be the one that takes the baton away from the fading Canelo Alvarez, either by force or by grabbing all the headlines from the boxing public.
That’s what happens when you get a young lion willing to face the best while the aging one continually swerves the opposition needed to stay on top.
Benavidez will need to up his game considerably to have a shot at beating the talented Cuban Morrell because this guy looks like he’s fighting on another level. In Morrell’s last fight, he blew out a very good fighter in Yamaguchi Falcao (24-2, 10 KOs) in a first round knockout on April 22nd.
“We have an agreement. This is the plan,” said Sampson Lewkowicz to Fight Freaks Unite about the David Morrell vs. David Benavidez fight.
“We are with the same network. It’s easy to get an agreement. I strongly believe it will be more competitive than it would be with Canelo Alvarez. I believe Canelo wouldn’t go past six rounds with Benavidez, and with Morrell.”
Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) looked drained & lethargic, laboring to a closer than expected twelve round unanimous over Caleb Plant on March 25th.
That fight showed that Benavidez needs to move up to 175 already because he’s outgrown the 168-lb division and is having to wear himself out in training camp to artificially stay in the super middleweight division.
While it’s good that Benavidez can still make the 168-lb limit by using herculean efforts, it’s potentially bad because he’s looking drained now. It appears to be aging him to continually drain down to compete in a weight class that is no longer suited to his body size.
The winner of the Morrell vs. Benavidez fight will be in a strong position to exert pressure on undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez to fight or vacate the WBA belt.
