Benavidez vs. Morrell Fight Results: Benavidez Earns UD

The judges scored the fight 115-111, 115-111, and 118-108, all in favor of Benavidez, who remained undefeated and defended his interim WBC light heavyweight title. Unlike post-fight interviews, Benavidez did not call for a fight with Canelo Alvarez, boxing’s biggest star, who remains with PBC but has declined to face him in the past.

The 28-year-old Benavidez, who trains out of Seattle, surfeited with the waiting process and has shifted his focus to becoming a two-division world champion.”I just want to be the best of my era,” Benavidez said. “I want to unify all four titles.”

Benavidez is referring to the undisputed light heavyweight championship. Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol fought for the distinction last October 10 in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia, but the first fight ended in a somewhat controversial majority decision in favor of Beterbiev, who went the distance for the first time in his professional career, while Bivol suffered the first loss of his previously unblemished résumé.

Both men will settle the score on February 22, once again in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but this is a fight that Beterbiev and Bivol fought to a somewhat controversial 12-round majority decision last October 12, with Beterbiev earning undisputed status as he rallied down the stretch to defeat the previously undefeated Bivol.

The bell rang to signify the beginning of the fight. Both men promised to deliver electrifying knockouts, but the first round was a ferocious display of technical skills. With 39 seconds to go in the frame, Benavidez unloaded with a series of lefts and rights to the body that surprised Morrell. However, the Cuban knocked Benavidez back on his feet moments later. After three minutes of tense ferocity, Morrell blew a kiss at his adversary while Benavidez nodded.

Both fighters traded right hands in the first minute of round two. Benavidez subsequently had Morrell with his back against the ropes and unloaded to the body and the head. With less than a minute to go, Morrell let his hands go, but a majority of his attacks were blocked by Benavidez’s tight guard. The pace slowed to start the third round but picked up near the one-minute mark. Morrell landed a sharp left hand on Benavidez and admired his work as his opponent remained unfazed. The chess match continued to unravel. At the end of the round, Benavidez’s corner went to work on a small abrasion above his left eye.

The fourth round began with fireworks as Benavidez went on the attack, moving Morrell to the ropes and unloading with a full arsenal of chopping left hands and rights. With 1:30 to go, Benavidez pierced Morrell with a sustained attack of left uppercuts. With 30 seconds to go, Benavidez hurt Morrell with a check left hook. Morrell attempted to smother the attack, but Benavidez looped him around and nailed him with a right uppercut as multiple bells rang, the one in the ring and Morrell’s head.

The pace was subdued for a large stretch of round five, but Benavidez picked up the pace in the final 20 seconds, connecting with a stiff right hand before Morrell turned away from the ropes. Benavidez rocked Morrell with a hard left uppercut with 1:28 remaining in round six. The animosity. The tension. The hatred. Perhaps all of that pent-up energy and emotion had caused both fighters to punch themselves out, or maybe someone was saving something special.

The fight moved to the center of the ring in the seventh round, where Benavidez found success with 1:20 left in the frame with a sweeping left hook followed by a right uppercut. The uppercut, to this point, had been a key factor in Benavidez’s dissection of Morrell. By the eighth round, both men exhibited signs of a tough, rugged fight. Morrell had abrasions and swelling on both sides of his face, and even Benavidez’s left cheekbone was slightly inflated.

Sportsmanship was the theme to begin the ninth round, which hadn’t been present throughout the build-up to the fight when Morrell apologized to Benavidez for landing a shot behind the head, as he briefly bowed to Benavidez before both men touched gloves as a sign of mutual respect? A foreshadowing of things to come? Not necessarily. Benavidez returned to the attack and blasted Morrell with a quarter of right uppercuts that froze him on his feet.

The 10th round was punctuated when Benavidez performed his version of ‘The Ali Shuffle’ to the enjoyment of the fans in attendance. Morrell, as both eyes continued to swell, then shocked everyone when he dropped Benavidez with a short right hand that caused his nemesis to touch the canvas with both hands. Benavidez then hammered Morrell against the ropes before Morrell clobbered him after the bell with a huge right hand and was immediately docked a point by referee Thomas Taylor.

“It was a good fight. This is boxing; some days you win, and some days you lose. Tonight was my turn. I’m young, and I’ll keep pushing for another opportunity,” Morrell said. Overcome by lassitude, both combatants fought to the bitter end of a toilsome war but embraced one another and lifted each other’s hands to the air to a chorus of cheers in Las Vegas.

Once again, boxing exemplified how two men from opposite sides of the world, with intense detestation for the other, can come together after trading blood, sweat, and tears. “Shoutout to David Morrell; he’s a great fighter, and I know he’ll have a lot of great fights in the future,” Benavidez said as he exited the ring.

Stephen Fulton Jr. Reverts Back To His Old Ways And Scores A Dominant Unanimous Decision

If their first fight was about will, the second was about skill.

Stephen Fulton easily outboxed Brandon Figueroa in their rematch to become the new WBC featherweight world champion by unanimous decision. Their first fight, contested for the unified junior featherweight world titles, was a close, competitive bout that Fulton, now a two-division world triumphant, won by majority decision. The rematch was as disproportionate as you could possibly imagine.

Fulton (23-1, 8 KOs) won via scores of 116-112, 116-112, and 117-111, which was closer than most ringside observers had it. FightsATW scored it 120-108, a shutout for Fulton, who scored his second straight win following a brutal eighth-round TKO defeat to Naoya Inoue in July 2023.

The opening round was the closest the fight ever got to being truly competitive as both men threw jabs and felt each other out. In the third round, both fighters exchanged punches in the middle of the ring, but with 20 seconds to go, Fulton made a small adjustment, stepped to his left, and connected with a hard straight right hand on Figueroa.

Figueroa continued to chase, but to the chagrin of his face, Fulton continued to force him to fight at his pace in the fourth frame, using his southpaw from a distance, tying up his opponent in close range, and following up with left hands to keep him off him.

The fifth round was more of the same, although Figueroa closed the distance. The problem was that he left his chin unprotected, catching a series of left and right uppercuts and a left hook on the inside while Fulton was against the ropes.

Figueroa (25-2-1, 19 KOs) had an argument that he won the first fight but had no rationalization in the rematch. As the seventh round commenced, Fulton connected with nearly every uppercut he threw. And his blistering pace continued, albeit the fans sporadically jeered at the supposed lack of action. Fulton answered the vilification with an act of reciprocation, putting an exclamation point on their rivalry with a dominant performance in their 12-round affair.

UNDERCARD

Junior welterweights: Isaac Cruz (27-3-1, 18 KOs) UD 10 Angel Fierro (23-3-2, 18 KOs)

Middleweights: Jesus Ramos (22-1, 18 KOs) TKO 8 Jeison Rosario (24-5-2, 18 KOs)

Featherweights: Mirco Cuello (15-0, 12 KOs) TKO 10 Christian Olivo (22-2-1, 9 KOs

Middleweights: Yoenli Hernandez (7-0, 7 KOs) TKO 5 Angel Ruiz (18-3-1, 13 KOs)

Lightweights: Curmel Moton (7-0, 6 KOs) TKO 3 Frank Zaldivar (5-2, 3 KOs)

Super middleweights: Daniel Blancas (12-0, 5 KOs) UD 8 Juan Barajas (11-1-2, 7 KOs)

Middleweights: Jose Benavidez Jr. (29-3-1, 20 KOs) TKO 5 Danny Rosenberger (20-10-4, 10 KOs)

Featherweights: Gabriela Tellez (4-0, 1 KO) MD 6 Abril Anguiano (4-1, 2 KOs

Super middleweights: John Easter (8-0, 7 KOs) UD 6 Joseph Aguilar (6-3-1, 1 KO)