David Benavidez dominates David Morrell in Las Vegas

In a highly anticipated light heavyweight match up, between 2 undefeated fighters, David Benavidez (30-0, 24 KO’s) unified the light heavyweight championship by earning a UD 12 over challenger David Morrell on Saturday night from Las Vegas, Nevada.

With the win, Benavidez keeps his interim WBC belt and adds the WBA title to his trophy case.

Judges across the board saw it as a clear Benavidez win coming in at 115-111 (x2), and 118-108.

Benavidez dominated most rounds and landed the heavier shots all night. While Morrell showed a good chin and excellent skills facing a fighter with 29 straight wins (in only Morrell’s 12th fight), he was just a step behind all night in the activity department.

But, it was a very good fight and in the end the fans were the winners.

After the fight, Benavidez, who acknowledged Morrell’s skills, was happy with the victory.

“This is ‘El Monstro’s’ world,” said Benavidez. “Shout out to Morrell. I knew he’d be tough and that’s why I prepared so hard for this. I’m happy we were able to give the fans a great show tonight”, he said. “I prepared for everything, I knew he was a great fighter,” Benavidez said. “This is the biggest win of my career".

Morrell (11-1, 9 KO’s) suffered the first loss of his 6-year career.

“It was a good fight,” Morrell said. “This is boxing, some days you win and some days you lose. I’m young and I’ll keep pushing for another opportunity.”

Main Support Bouts

In a ‘styles make fights’ super lightweight brawl, popular Isaac “Pit Bull” Cruz (27-3-0, 18 KO’s) brawled his way to a UD 10 over iron-tough Angel Fierro (23-3-2, 18 KO’s). Both fighters had their moments landing some serious shots. In the end, Cruz landed the harder shots in most of the non-stop exchanges. Shout out to Fierro who did nothing to lower his stock in the loss. Judges came in at 98-92, 97-93 and 96-94, all for Cruz. There is talk of a Cruz-Ryan Garcia bout next.

Former unified champion Stephen Fulton Jr. (23-1, 8 KO’s) captured the WBC 126-pound title with a UD 12 (117-111 and 116-112 x 2) over 2-division world champion Brandon “The Heartbreaker” Figueroa (25-2-1, 19 KO’s) in their championship rematch.

This was their 2nd go-round after their 2021 super bantamweight championship unification fight that was one of the year’s best fights, won by Fulton via UD.

Middleweight Jesus Ramos Jr. (22-1, 18 KO’s) defeated Jeison Rosario (24-5-2, 18 Ko’s) via TKO 8 in their 160-pound 10-rounder. Ramos dominated from the opening bell and while Rosario showed incredible heart, he looked like a fighter who needs to seriously consider what is next. He got hit too hard and too often and appeared to have nothing to keep Ramos off him.

Undercard

Mirco Cuello (15-0, 12 KO’s) Christian Barreda (22-2, 9 KO’s)

Younli Hernandez (7-0, 7 KO’s) TKO 5 Angel Ruiz Astorga (18-4-1, 13 KO’s)

Curmel Moton (7-0, 6 KO’s) TKO 3 Frank Saldivar (5-2, 1 KO)

Daniel Blancas (12-0, 5 KO’s)) UD 8 Juan Barajas (11-1-2, 7 KO’s)

Jose Benavidez Jr. (29-3-1, 20 KO’s) TKO 5 Danny Rosenberger (20-10-4, 10 KO’s)

Gabriela Tellez (4-0, 1 KO) W MD 6 Abril Anguiano (4-1, 2 KO’s)

Kaipo Gallegos (8-0-1, 6 KO’s) W UD 6 Leonardo Padilla (24-7-1, 17 KO’s)

John Easter (8-0, 7 KO’s) W UD 6 Joseph Aguilar (6-3-1, 3 KO’s)