David Benavidez a real light-heavyweight threat after defusing David Morrell
Plus, Fulton wins rematch, Azim beats Lipinets and more
David Benavidez showed us two things on Saturday night. He’s not only a major threat to the likes of Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol but he’s also the best David in the light-heavyweight division. The other David, Cuba’s Morrell, was just second best against a Goliath who refused to be slayed.
The winner further stocked his trophy cabinet, adding Morrell’s WBA strap to his own WBC Interim bauble. Both are good fighters, but the real champion, Beterbiev, fights Bivol in a highly-anticipated rematch on February 22. Any other belt is merely to keep the trousers up.
Despite Morrell’s best efforts in the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, he was beginning to look like a man only just in double fight digits. Benavidez’s workrate and experience told pretty much from round one.
The ‘Mexican Monster’ admitted afterwards that Morrell had been easier to hit than he anticipated. The openings were there and he took them. Repeatedly.
Two judges scored it rather narrow at 115-111, while Tim Cheatham’s 118-108 offering better resembled the action. Benavidez later referred to a cuffing knockdown in round 11 as “bullshit”.
Referee Thomas Taylor saw otherwise and dished out a count before deducting a point from Morrell at the end of the round. The southpaw unleashed a late hook as the exchanges spilt into overtime.
Speaking in solid English despite a translator being on hand, Morrell suffered his first career loss but vowed to return stronger. Losing fighters often use this line.
In this case, the man who had dominated everyone else in advance of this big Pay-Per-View chance can be believed. Take the loss, soak up the lessons and move on.
As for Benavidez, he made his intentions known that a 175-pound unification is currently on his mind. Unifying the titles will be easier if the PBC paymasters decide to do business with boxing’s new head henchman -sorry, honcho- Turki Al-Alalshikh and stick David in with the winner of the ‘Last Crescendo’ later this month.
Fulton’s fury, Cruz and Fierro go fuego and Ramos slices banana
In the chief supporting contest on a well-matched undercard, Stephen Fulton grabbed a second win over Brandon Figueroa and his collection of haters, all in one go, by grinding out a unanimous decision to take home the WBC featherweight title. Fulton had previously beaten Figueroa in 2021.
Isaac Cruz kept himself in the mix for bigger fights by outpointing Angel Fierro over 10 rounds. The pair combined to throw almost 1500 punches. It was a cracking affair.
Jesus Ramos reinforced his status as a solid prospect-come-contender by stopping former unified champion Jeison Rosario in round eight. ‘Banana’ Rosario wasn’t happy, but he was behind on all three cards and getting significantly weaker after being floored.
Adam Azim breezes past Lipinets
Adam Azim sent out a message to domestic rival Dalton Smith on Saturday evening, saying the Sheffield man “better be watching”. Perhaps he would’ve been better catching the highlights. Azim got the job done in round nine as referee Steve Gray compassionately intervened.
Some of Azim’s body shots were so low they almost slid into the English Channel. As if poor Lipinets didn’t have enough to worry about with the scything uppercuts busting his nose up. The former world champion needs to retire.
Azim is on a different career path. He looks pretty damn good and is only 22 years old. The potential Smith fight has been carefully managed by Dalton’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, who has chased, harried and backed Azim and his team into a corner.
At 13-0 (10 KOs), he’s been able to fight his way out of the corners successfully so far. Promoter Ben Shalom is unlikely to let him entertain a scrap with his more polished domestic rival just yet.
Colm Murphy blasts away Haji; Howells-Cooney ends badly
I was in the Ulster Hall on Saturday night as Colm Murphy dispatched Kasimu Hamad Haji in round three. The Tanzanian went down from a body barrage and put up minimal resistance in the BBC NI (Northern Ireland) headliner.
The same cannot be said for John Cooney, who punched until he could throw no more, getting stopped in round nine by the just-as-resilient Nathan Howells of Wales. After the fight was called off, an exhausted Cooney was given oxygen and taken off his stool and placed into the recovery position.
A stretcher carried him out of the ring and off to the local hospital. I’ve seen this conclusion a few times over the years and it never gets any less distressing. No further news is known on his condition at the time of publishing.
Image credits: PBC, Sky/Boxxer, promotional.
About Steve…
Current existence: Online editor at Boxing News Magazine.
Previous lives: Author (8 books), podcaster (500+ eps), scriptwriter for Motivedia channel, newspaper journalist, copywriter & educator.
Contact: stevenwellings1982@gmail.com