Stepping into the ring can be dangerous, regardless of the opponent.<\/p>\n
When facing David Benavidez<\/a>, it can be career-changing. He could go on and on about the WBC light heavyweight champion, but he would rather give a specific example. <\/p>\n \u201cLook at David Morrell,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were talking about Morrell as the next superstar. They said Morrell was gonna demolish him and make him look bad, but he made Morrell look like an amateur.\u201d<\/p>\n Morrell<\/a> struggled in his first fight since their February 1 showdown in Las Vegas. The former two-division titleholder won a 10-round split decision against Imam Khataev<\/a>, but he spent large stretches fighting on his back foot and was knocked down during the fifth round by the previously unbeaten Russian on July 12 in New York.<\/p>\n While his fight with Khataev was more difficult than expected, the flashy Cuban southpaw promised to get better. Benavidez Sr. doubts it after watching him go 12 full rounds with his son.<\/p>\n As Morrell attempts to rebuild himself, Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) is working toward a shot whoever wins the third bout between undisputed 175-pound champ Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev<\/a>. The Phoenix, Arizona, native first needs to defeat two-time title challenger Anthony Yarde<\/a> (27-3, 24 KOs), a fitting first defense as full champion November 22 in the main event of \u201cThe Ring IV\u201d at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia<\/a>. <\/p>\n On paper, England\u2019s Yarde is tough. He\u2019s gritty, relentless and on a roll after four consecutive wins. <\/p>\n Benavidez Sr. isn\u2019t losing any sleep over him. Yarde is a top-five contender and earned the right for a title shot, but that doesn\u2019t mean he sees the matchup as competitive. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a great fighter,\u201c the trainer said, “but David is going to go out there and dominate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stepping into the ring can be dangerous, regardless of the opponent. When facing David Benavidez, it can be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":["post-99181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-boxing-results","tag-disqualification","tag-draw","tag-fight","tag-fighter","tag-fighter-news","tag-knockout","tag-latest-boxing-matches","tag-ring","tag-ring-magazine","tag-split-decision","tag-sports","tag-technical-knockout","tag-the-ring","tag-top-fighters","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cDavid goes in there and puts a beating on his opponents,\u201d Jose Benavidez Sr., his father and trainer, told The Ring<\/a>. \u201cEvery fighter that David fights, they\u2019re not the same after.\u201d<\/p>\n