Trainer Jose Benavidez Jr. has ruled out David Morrell being the next opponent for ‘The Mexican Monster’ David Benavidez after his win over Demetrius Andrade.
Here’s the interesting part. Benavidez Sr. says they want Canelo Alvarez next, but if they can’t get him, they’ll “continue to fight against the best,” but they don’t want WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion Morrell.
It seems pretty clear that Benavidez Sr. is afraid of letting David face Morrell because he could lose to the talented Cuban, and then the jig would be up. There would be no coming back.
The untold riches that have been dancing around Jose Sr’s head when he dreams about his son David Benavidez fighting Canelo would be gone forever, as Morrell will have permanently ruined things.
Jose Sr. isn’t saying who Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs) will face if they fail to get the payday fight they’ve been pushing for against Canelo because their options are slim at 168.
Although Benavidez mentioned at the post-fight press conference being interested in fighting Dmitry Bivol at 175, he spoke in a way that suggested that it would eventually happen, but not soon.
That makes sense because it would be even harder than it already is for David to make weight at 168 when he returns to the division.
Best fighters at 168:
David Morrell
Caleb Plant
Diego Pacheco
Edgar Berlanga
Jaime Munguia
Christian Mbilli
Vladimir Shishkin
Erik Bazinyan
Aslambek Idigov
Ali Akhemdov
Kevin Sadjo
Bektemir Melikuziev
Obviously, Morrell is the best fighter at 168 among those fighters, so the pathetic excuse that Jose Sr. makes about him not being well known or that they want to fight better opposition makes no sense.
The only better-known fighter on that list is Caleb Plant, and Benavidez has already beaten him. None of those guys would stand a chance against Morrell, as he would destroy them all.
Benavidez to continue looking for biggest fights
“I don’t care. We’re going to continue looking for the biggest fights. If it happens, it happens. If not, David is only 26 years old, and we got to stay busy. That’s all we’re thinking about,” said Jose Benavidez Sr. to Fight Hub TV when asked if he thinks Canelo Alvarez will continue to present roadblocks to a fight against David Benavidez next.
“If he wants to be remembered as the greatest and make history, he has to face David. “That’s the fight they [fans] want to see,” continued Jose Sr. about his wanting Canelo to face Benavidez next. “We want to fight nothing but the best. Boo Boo was a great fighter.”
Demetrius Andrade was never a great fighter or anything close to that. His best wins of his long 15-year career were against these fighters:
Maciej Sulecki
Vanes Martirosyan
Brian Rose
Jason Quigley
Artur Akabov
Jake Culcay
Willie Nelson
Canelo will already be remembered as the “greatest” without fighting Benavidez. He doesn’t need that guy to make history. It’s the other way around. Benavidez hasn’t beaten anyone in his career who was an A-level fighter because Andrade was old at 35 and Caleb Plant had stamina issues.
Jose Sr. rules out David Morrell for Benavidez to fight
“I don’t even want to talk about David Morrell. We’ll fight him, don’t get me wrong. Who has he fought? Morrell, who is he fighting? He’s not at that level. I think David will knock him out,” said Benavidez Sr.
Who did Andrade fight? He didn’t fight anyone good, yet Benavidez still fought him. Who did David Lemieux beat? He never beat any big names, and Benavidez fought him. You can go down the list of Benavidez’s career opponents. None of them ever beat anyone special, and he still fought them.
So why does Jose Sr. NOT want Benavidez to fight Morrell? It seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it? He’s flat-out scared that Benavidez will lose to Morrell and then say goodbye to the Canelo payday.
“Boo Boo was a great fighter. I think David can take him out easy than Boo Boo Andrade,” said Benavidez Sr. “Like I said, we want to fight the real fighters. The fighters that are the monsters. The Bivols, and Beterbievs. Guys that are tough.”
Benavidez isn’t about to go up to 175 for his next fight to face Dmitry Bivol or Artur Beterbiev, and Jose Sr. knows that. He’s just using that as an excuse to have David duck the Morrell fight.
“This was a special fight. We fought a guy that was an Olympian, a two-time world champion. One of the best ever,” said Jose Sr. about Andrade. “I thought it was going to be a more difficult fight but it was an easier fight because of the hard work and dedication.
“I think we showed today that David [Benavidez] is the best at 168. All those people who said that David had bad footwork, we proved them wrong. David Benavidez is the full package. We beat one of the best 168s right now,” said Jose Sr.
Benavidez Sr. is going a little overboard with his comments about 35-year-old Andrade being one of the best at 168, considering that he’d only fought once at super middleweight before last night’s fight. His only win at 168 was against Demond Nicholson, and that’s not a top-level contender.
