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Light heavyweight contender Radivoje Kalajdzic says the key to David Morel defeating David Benavidez is staying “composed” for the first six to eight rounds of their headlining clash at 175 this Saturday, February 1 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Radivoje fought Morel (11-0, 9 KOS) on August 3rd in Los Angeles last year and knows what he can do against Benavidez. He notes that Benavidez has fought “smaller guys” throughout his career, campaigning at 168, not 175.
When Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) moved against 37-year-old former WBC heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15 of last year, he didn't land much because the former champion wasn't landing his shots. He was pushing them.
On Saturday, it will be the first time in Benavidez's 12-year career that he faces a guy who will hit him hard. Radivoje is interested to see how Benavidez handles Morel's size and strength.
The Serbian Radivochoe native (29-3, 21 KOs) punches harder than Benavidez, and Morel handled his power well, winning a 12-round decision.
Morel's strategy
“If he can stay composed and stay calm for the first six to eight rounds, because Benavidez, everything he has and everything he does is pressure. Eventually, he will slow down. So stay composed, choose your shots and move because he can box,” Radivodje Kalajdzic told YSM Sports Media On how David Morrell can beat David Benavidez this Saturday night on February 1st.
“Don't be the aggressor. I think he can pull it out, but overall it's going to be a close fight,” Radivodje continued of the Benavidez vs. Morrell contest.
“David Benavidez has fought smaller guys his whole career. He was always the bigger guy, then when he fought (Alexander) Gvozdik, Gvozdik didn't really even hit that hard. So, I don't know. This will be the first test. Will we see how Benavidez gets hurt or will he just walk Morel down? ” – said Radivoye.
Benavidez will try to walk Morel down because that's how his father Jose Benavidez Jr.'s style always fights; However, as we saw last Saturday night with Jose Jr.'s fighter, Omar Salcido, in his one-sided loss to the Cuban Andy Cruzthis high pressure style doesn't work against talented fighters.
Benavidez will get hit a lot by Morel and he could take a boxing lesson from him in this contest. The way to fight Benavidez is exactly how Cruz beat Salcido: Jab, Potshot, move and attack.
Cruz waited until the second half to start pressing Salcido and it was one-sided. The Cuban Morel can do the same because Benavidez is even more careless and godless than Salcido. Benavidez makes him look like a master boxer by comparison.
Untested waters
“It will be a big test for both of them. I don't know. We'll see. I don't know how he (Benavidez) reacts to guys with his size breaking back. So we'll see,” Radivodje said of how boxing fans will see how Benavidez reacts to fighting the equally Big Morel.
It will be an interesting test of how well Benavidez can hold up against his first big shot of his 12-year career. As Radivoje pointed out, Oleksandr Gvozdyk wasn't punching that hard. He was mainly pushing his punches, it looked like he was trying to conserve energy to protect himself from gas.
When Gvozdyk started loading up on his shots late in the bout, he caused Benavidez huge problems and took control of the later rounds. By then it was too much for Gvozdik and he couldn't pull out the win because he had given away too many rounds throwing at partial power.
In the 12th, Gvozdyk hurt Benavidez with a right body shot thrown straight down the barrel. That shot knocked the wind out of Benavidez as he didn't throw punches for the rest of the round after taking that breadbasket shot.
