David Benavidez: A Ray of Brutal Sunshine

Ain’t it refreshing to have something positive to say about this sport– without having to extract the positivity from a fetid pile of dung?

David Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) is that “something positive.”

Sure, you could’ve pointed to some cynical matchmaking on his climb up the boxing ladder. There was some definite “travel the path of least resistance” in matchmaking done for him.

Part of that was just standard procedure when it comes to young, rising stars in the sport. Every elite-level fighter thrashes an array of no-hope club fighters, journeymen, and gatekeepers on their way to the top.

Another reason for Benavidez treading water at the deep end of the talent pool was the wait on Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and the money fight that, ultimately, never materialized. Benavidez and his people wanted that big-ticket opportunity and were likely willing to bide their time, circling their target with weak and/or weak-ish opposition, while the big one was a legitimate possibility.

When it became crystal clear that Alvarez was not interested in fighting him, Benavidez could’ve gone on a pity tour for another couple years, playing the role of “most avoided” and fighting tailor-made opposition under the dubious premise that, “Since Canelo is scared, I have nobody else to fight.”

But to Benavidez’s (and his team’s) credit, he moved on from the path of least resistance and drove over to “doing things the hard way” road– taking along with him his fan-friendly, all action ring style

He fought Caleb Plant and Demetrius Andrade in 2023, dominating both en route to victory. He then moved up to 175 in 2024, in pursuit of the winner of Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol, taking on former world champ Oleksandr Gvozdyk in a tough testing-of-the-waters bout.

And now, of course, he’ll be fighting Cuban standout David Morrell, a fighter most everyone from 168 to 175 would prefer not to acknowledge.

The 26-year-old Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) has elite-level tools and passes every conceivable eye test when it comes to “for real” status. Although he’s also been guided to the near-top over a trail of fall guys and gatekeepers, it’s clear that there is the spark of something special in the 11-fight pro who’s had more world title fights than non-title fights during his short pro career.

Benavidez-Morrell on February 1 will be a good one– a much-needed good one for the US boxing scene at this moment in history.

“I want to prove that I’m the best in the world, and the only one there besides Bivol and Beterbiev is David Morrell. That was the best fight I could see. It’s not the easiest fight. It’s probably the toughest besides Beterbiev and Bivol,” Benavidez said in a recent interview on the Tobin and Leroy radio show.

“He had a couple of words for me, saying I was running from him. I had to test his temperature and let him know that I’m going to be here all night. I’m not going to be running from nobody, and by the time this fight is finished, he’s going to know who the best David is.

“Canelo was kind of blocking my chance to achieve greatness. I think now everybody is about protecting their O. For me, if you want to get the money right, you have to go through the hardest fights. You have to show people what you’re made of. That’s what I’m doing with this fight.”

Thus far, face-to-face meetings between the two 20-something undefeated competitors have been appropriately tense, with a shoving match breaking out at Tuesday’s media workout.

This is all good, very good.

For the first time in a long time, there’s only positive news to be found in this one.