David Benavidez can’t afford to look past WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion David Morrell for their 12-round headliner on February 1st at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Jose Benavidez Sr says that his son could move up to cruiserweight to challenge WBA and WBO champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez if they can’t get an immediate title against the winner of the February 22nd rematch between undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol. There’s a good chance Beterbiev-Bivol will fight a trilogy in late 2025.
Targeting Zurdo At Cruiserweight
“For some reason, if this fight with the winner of Beterbiev and Bivol is not happening or whatever, we’ll definitely go to cruiserweight to fight Zurdo Ramirez,” said Jose Benavidez Sr. to Fight Hub TV.
We don’t know how serious Jose Sr. is about Benavidez going up to cruiserweight if he can’t get the Beterbiev-Bivol 2 winner, but it’s a bad idea to think about doing so so soon. It’s pretty clear that after years of being avoided by Canelo Alvarez, Benavidez has grown impatient and is going to take the best possible fights without worrying about risk. You have to respect that.
If Benavidez moves up and defeats Zurdo Ramirez, he can potentially capture the WBA and WBO cruiserweight and then face IBF champ Jai Opetaia in a fight that the Saudis might be interested in staging in Riyadh.
Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) can’t afford to look past Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs), because that’s a fight he could lose. Two, if Benavidez were to go up to cruiserweight, it would be difficult to return to 175 to eventually fight the Beterbiev-Bivol winner.
Looking Past Morrell
“At 175, these two super contenders, Bivol and Beterbiev, may end up even having a trilogy. So, you’re on the outside looking in over there too. I get it. It’s not fair. I understand where he’s coming from,” said Paulie Malignaggi to Probox TV about David Benavidez finding himself having to wait for big fights after failing to get the one that he wanted at 168.
“I say the time right now is to think about David Morrell. He’s no gimme, and David Morrell is in the same situation. Let’s not forget. Canelo didn’t want none of David Morrell either. If Morrell beats Benavidez at 175, it’s the same thing for Morrell. He’s going to be waiting for Beterbiev and Bivol as well.”
Benavidez and his dad, Jose Sr, seem convinced that Morrell is sure thing win based on his performance against Radivoje Kalajdzic on August 3rd. Morrell fought the worst possible way, throwing single shots, and making it easy on Radivoje to fire back counters. Morrell put up his guard and allowed him to tee off throughout the fight, and didn’t attack the way he needed to for it to be an easy match.
Interestingly, Morrell hadn’t learned from watching Artur Beterbiev in how he dealt with Kalajdzic by throwing nonstop punches, and continuing to attack on the inside. Morrell wasn’t doing any of that, and looked lost.
“I think both of these guys are in the same exact situation, and that’s why it’s no coincidence that they end up fighting each other,” said Malignaggi.
Regardless of the outcome of the Beterbiev vs. Bivol rematch on February 22nd, those two are likely to fight a trilogy, which will leave the winner of the Benavidez-Morrell fight sitting and waiting.
Assuming Benavidez is serious about going up to cruiserweight, he could be saying goodbye to his chances of being victorious against one of them when he returns to 175. Benavidez would be better off staying at 175 and defending the WBA title against one of the top contenders, like Joshua Buatsi, Willy Hutchinson, or Anthony Yarde.
Moving up to cruiserweight would make it too difficult for Benavidez to come back down to 175 because he’d have to lose the weight.
