Bradley: Morrell Must Attack Benavidez’s Body

Tim Bradley says David Morrell can win tonight if he focuses on attacking ‘The Mexican Monster’ David Benavidez’s body throughout the fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Morrell’s Opportunity

Bradley notes that Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) squares up in front of his opponents, using a high guard to defend his head but doing nothing to block body shots. Benavidez also tends to throw a lot of punches, counting on his offense to be his defense, and he can be countered to his rounded, pear-shaped body.

Between fights, Benavidez balloons in weight like Tyson Fury, forcing him to devote time to losing weight. Targeting that Fury-like body is the key for Morrell to win this fight because that is the one area where Benavidez has proven to be vulnerable.

“If you attack that body, you’re going to have a lot of success. That’s because Benavidez squares up too much,” said Tim Bradley to Fighthype about what David Morrell must do to defeat David Benavidez tonight. “He uses a high guard for defense. He will move his head.

“If Morrell can stay concentrated, wash, rinse, and repeat his game plan. Attack that body, use his boxing skills ability, avoid getting trapped on the ropes, staying in the center in the ring, and staying consistent.

“I think Benavidez is going to have to come from behind to win this fight. I think Morrell has great boxing ability to operate and control the action up until six. We’ll see late because he doesn’t have late-round experience. He’s only gone the distance twice. It’s a close matchup.”

Morrell and his team have obviously noted that Benavidez can’t be hurt in the head because his thick skull easily absorbs punches. Benavidez has those Neanderthal man-like brow ridges, which indicates that his skull bones are dense and can take punches that a normal person couldn’t.

Exploiting Benavidez’s Weakness 

The only chance of knocking out Benavidez is hurting him to the body the way Oleksandr Gvozdyk did when he redirected his punches from the head to his body in the 12th round of their fight last year on June 15th. When Gvozdyk finally changed tactics, he had Benavidez looking mortal.

It’s surprising that an intelligent fighter like Gvozdyk went the first 11 rounds without changing tactics. Morrell saw what he did to Benavidez, and he won’t waste time targeting his cinderblock head to waste his punches. He’ll go after that weak body of Benavidez and make him quit on his knees. Every fighter has a weakness, and we’ve seen that Benavidez has one glaring one. He can’t take it to the body.

“Morrell likes guys that are right in front of him. His last fight [Radivoje Kalajdzic] showed me that he doesn’t like guys that move and can actually box and pick up their feet,” said Bradley. “If Benavidez is going to be right in front and not just change distances, he’s going to be there to be hit.”

“That’s why Morrell is mocking him and trying to get under his skin. If Benavidez is smart, he does have an IQ. I don’t know if it’s on the level of Morrell, but it’s damn good. It’s underrated,” said Bradley.