Former coach Abel Sanchez feels that WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion David Morrell Jr. (9-0, 8 KOs) doesn’t deserve to fight David Benavidez because he hasn’t been a professional long enough or had enough fights to get that kind of a match-up.
Sanchez feels that Morrell Jr’s amateur pedigree isn’t enough for him to rate sharing the ring with professionals like Benavidez, who have earned his spot through a long career.
The interesting part is Morrell is a world champion at 168, whereas Benavidez holds a trinket belt, the WBC interim strap.
Sanchez points out that Morrell hasn’t fought Caleb Plant, the journeyman king, who he sees as a prerequisite to fighting Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs).
Fighting the gatekeeper’s assistant, ‘Sweethands’ Plant, Benavidez & Canelo Alvarez’s leftovers, would put Morrell in a no-win situation where he wouldn’t receive any credit for beating him.
Morrell doesn’t deserve the attention?
Plant has been a pro for as long as Benavidez, so it’s unclear why Sanchez says Morrell doesn’t rate fighting Benavidez due to a lack of pro experience, but it is okay for him to face Plant.
The 25-year-old Morrell has only been a pro for four years since 2019 but has been fast-tracked due to his long amateur career in Cuba and has shown the kind of technical skills & power that no one else possesses at 168, not even Benavidez.
Morrell wants the fight with the 26-year-old Benavidez now and has been putting pressure on him to make that match-up happen.
Benavidez has been making excuses for not facing Morrell, saying he wants notable fighters, Canelo or Jermall Charlo, for his next fight.
He fails to mention that neither of those two fighters is expected to face him next, and likely not at all in 2024. When you factor that into the equation, Benavidez is ducking Morrell because his preferred two options won’t fight him anyway.
Morrell is headlining Showtime Sports’ final boxing broadcast this Saturday, December 16th, against Sena Agbeko (28-2, 22 KOs) at the Minneapolis Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“I don’t think he deserves the attention yet. He may have had a great amateur career and a lot of fights, but I don’t think he deserves the attention,” said Abel Sanchez to Fight Hub TV about David Morrell Jr.
“He’s talking a lot and calling David [Benavidez] out. I think these guys that we’re talking about did their work coming up, did their work to get to that point. It’s like when they brought Lomachenko, and he got beat by [Orlando] Salido.
Sanchez’s old school mentality would hold Morrell back, perhaps a decade, hurting his career but protecting Benavidez so that he could grab the throne once Canelo abdicates.
Regardless of Sanchez’s comments about Morrell needing years of experience, he is the future of the division and doesn’t need to defeat the aging gatekeeper Plant for him to take the top spot right out from under Benavdiez’s nose.
Sanchez trying to hold back Morrell will be fruitless because he’s on the path to taking over the 168-lb division, and putting the journeyman Plant in front of him as an obstacle won’t work.
“You can’t just bring these guys all of a sudden because they’re talking a lot of crap or because they had a good management team or promotional team. I think he has to deserve it,” Sanchez said about Morrell.
Is Benavidez being protected from Morrell?
“For me to watch him and comment on him, I’d have to pay attention to what he’s doing and who he’s fought and how he’s done. But who has he fought? Has he fought a Caleb Plant? He fought everybody that was in line at Home Depot waiting for a job.”
Morrell is challenging himself against Sena Agbeko this Saturday night, and this is not a gimme. It’s pointless for Morrell to be held back by a lack of professional experience when he fought far better opposition as an amateur than he could have faced through 30 fights as a professional.
Benavidez is a ten-year pro, and he has only just gotten a fight against Plant this year. He only got that fight because Canelo suggested that they face each other.
“He has to merit all this attention that these other guys have earned. That’s not true,” said Sanchez when told that Morrell is being fast-tracked because he had a long amateur career and doesn’t need to face years of weak opposition in the pro ranks the way other professional fighters who have limited amateur experience, if any, at all.
Sanchez might not remember that greats of the past, like Muhammad Ali, and Mike Tyson, accomplished big things earlier in their pro career without needing to toil away for years before being given a chance for a big fight.
“You still have to develop the skills to go 12 rounds. You have to learn how to fight every minute of every round as a pro. There are things that you have to develop in your own game, and to be able to do that, it takes time and rounds inside the ring,” said Sanchez.
