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Lightweight contender Radivoje Kalajdzic says the key to David Morrell defeating David Benavidez is to stay “composed” through the first six to eight rounds of their headline bout at 175 this Saturday, Feb. 1 at T-Mobile Arena in las vegas
Radivoje fought Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) on August 3 of last year in Los Angeles and knows what he can do against Benavidez. He notes that Benavidez has been fighting “smaller guys” throughout his career, campaigning at 168 instead of 175.
When Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) faced 37-year-old former WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15 of last year, he didn’t get hit hard because the former champion he wasn’t charging with his punches. . I was pushing them.
On Saturday, this will be the first time in Benavidez’s 12-year career that he will face a guy his size who will hit him hard. Radivoje is interested in seeing how Benavidez stacks up against Morrell’s size and power.
Serbian Radivojoe (29-3, 21 KOs) punches harder than Benavidez, and Morrell handled his power well in winning a 12-round decision.
Morrell’s strategy
“If he can stay calm and composed for the first six to eight days, because Benavidez, all he has and all he does is pressure. It will eventually slow down. So keep calm, pick your shots and move because he can box,” Radivoje Kalajdzic told YSM Sports Media on how David Morrell can defeat David Benavidez this Saturday night, February 1st.
“Don’t be the aggressor. I think he can get it, but it’s going to be a close fight overall,” Radivoje continued about the Benavidez vs. Morrell contest.
“David Benavidez has been fighting smaller guys his whole career. He’s always been the bigger guy, so when he fought (Oleksandr) Gvozdyk, Gvozdyk wasn’t even hitting that hard. So, I don’t know “This will be the first test. Will Benavidez get hurt, or will Morrell just go down?”
Benavidez will try to take Morrell down because that’s how he’s always fought and the style his father, Jose Benavidez Jr., teaches; however, as we saw last Saturday night with Jose Jr. fighter Omar Salcido in his one-sided loss to Cuban Andy Cruzthis high pressure style does not work against talented fighters.
Benavidez will get hit hard by Morrell, and could get a boxing lesson from him in this contest. The way he fights Benavidez is exactly how Cruz defeated Salcido: jab, pot shot, movement and attack.
Cruz waited until the second half to start pressuring Salcido, and it was one-sided. Cuban Morrell can do the same because Benavidez is even more sloppy and broken than Salcido. Benavidez makes him look like a master boxer by comparison.
Untested waters
“This is going to be a big test for both of us. I don’t know. We’ll see. I don’t know how he (Benavidez) reacts when guys his size take hits. So we’ll see,” Radivoje said of how the boxing fans how Benavidez reacts to fighting the equally big Morrell.
This will be an interesting test, showing how well Benavidez can handle his first big puncher in his 12-year career. As Radivoje pointed out, Oleksandr Gvozdyk wasn’t hitting that hard. He was mostly thrusting his punches, looking like he was trying to conserve energy to avoid gas.
When Gvozdyk started to load up with his punches late in the fight, he gave Benavidez massive trouble and took control in the later rounds. So was Gvozdyk then, and he couldn’t pull out the win because he’d given away too many rounds throwing at partial power.
In the 12th, Gvozdyk hurt Benavidez with a right body throw down the pipe. That punch knocked the wind out of Benavidez, as he didn’t throw punches for the rest of the round after taking that punch to the breadbasket.
