David Benavidez joins us LIVE! in the studio ahead of his matchup with David Morrell. David discusses his transition from Seattle to Miami then explains why he chose to battle with David Morrell. We get a breakdown of how their styles clash and how Benavidez can use this to his benefit. David gives his opinion on his Bivol vs Beterbiev before making a bold claim.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00We're joined in studio by one of the best boxers on the planet the monster David Benavidez joining us here David
00:05Thanks for time man. Good to talk to you again. Yeah, thank you guys for inviting me, and I really appreciate it
00:09Well, it's good. It's finally you've been down
00:10You've been trained down in Miami for what like a year and a half now two years
00:13How long you been down here? It's almost about to be a year in February. I moved down here. I bought a place out here
00:19I still have my place in Seattle, but you know because of the cold and the weather over there
00:23I had to give myself something you know that there's more summer and so more sunlight
00:27So I came over here. It's a beautiful city, and you know I love you. It's always wet there
00:31Yeah, like it's only you if you get the Sun everybody celebrates, but normally is gloomy cloudy rain
00:37I remember we used to go play Seattle. It was open. Yeah, so it's just yeah
00:41It's a beautiful city
00:42But it's just there's only two months out the summer where the Sun really comes out every day and after that is just gloominess and dark
00:49You uh we were just talking before we got on the air about a pro pro fight pro athletes trying to box
00:56Have you seen anybody any any pro athlete that has come across your parts?
01:00That's kind of decent like that's not a boxer, but is getting in the gym. He's kind of decent
01:05We actually have a one of my bros. Uh I don't know exactly what his name is, but he trains at boxer
01:12the football player
01:13He's an NFL player, but he's actually pretty good. He just fought on the boxer card on 11 11
01:19Not too long ago, but he's good. He was an NFL player, but um as
01:24You know as far from anybody else
01:26That's really kind of the only other professional athlete that I've seen this actually pretty good in boxing
01:29But there's not really that much in the sport of boxing you're you're fighting David Morrell coming up on February 1st pay-per-view Las Vegas
01:37Hello, fight man. Listen. This is not a
01:39You're not taking an easy one here, which is not your style. You're always usually taking the hardest matchups. What what made you?
01:47Get to this matchup against David
01:49So the way this fight was set up is you know I've gotten to a point in my career
01:53I've been professional 11 years now
01:55You know I mean and I've won four belts four different belts and my plan was I was the number one contender at a super
02:01Middleweight to fight for all the belts against Canelo Alvarez that didn't happen so I went up to light heavyweight. I want a belt
02:08this belt that I have right here the interim title and
02:11I was just looking for the best fighter
02:13I could possibly make for myself because at the end of the day you know I just want to I have something to prove
02:17Not only to the world but to myself that I am the best in the world and the only other person that was there
02:23You know besides obviously besides bevol and better be of but it's David Morrell
02:28So that was the best fight that I seen not the easiest fight
02:32It's probably the toughest fight besides better be of and bevol
02:35But I said hey now I believe in my skills
02:37I know that I'm the best in the world and I want to prove myself on the big stage to all my people and
02:42This fight you know we made the fight happen T-Mobile arena February 1st
02:47It's gonna be a great night of boxing guys got after to that press conference
02:50They would it seemed like there was not a lot of love lost already between you guys is that is that right off the bat?
02:56It was there something
02:58Beforehand because it seemed pretty vicious between you guys when it came to the war words early on
03:02Well because the only reason that happened is because at the end of the day
03:05This is a great fighter, and he's trying to he's trying to go in there knock me out
03:09You know I mean so he had a couple words for me saying that I was running from him this and that and you know
03:14I kind of I kind of had to test his temperature and let him know that I'm gonna be here all night
03:17And I'm not gonna be running from nobody and then by the time this fight is finished
03:21He's gonna know who the best fighter who the best David is and that's kind of what I showed him
03:24That was you know I was trying to trying to check his temperature real quick
03:27How is it you know because like the thing over the last few years is there's been a lot of fights that should have been
03:35You are willing to do that you have the belt you willing to go ahead on put yourself out there and fight
03:40Who's available does it bother you that there's some guys that pick and choose and and don't?
03:47Want to test whether they're the best or not they just want to they don't want to have these big fights
03:52To be honest with you the only thing that bothers me is that the person I was doing that is Canelo
03:57And he's you know it's not even about him. I don't care what he does, but he was
04:02He was kind of blocking my chance to achieve greatness going up against the for title
04:06I don't know. There's a lot of other people in boxing that do that, but you know it's not really my business
04:10But you know that's the one I did have a problem with Canelo Alvarez, and you know I think now
04:15Since Floyd Mayweather his era came
04:16I think everybody's now is more about protecting their own, and you know if the money isn't right
04:22They're not gonna take that I got you
04:24But for me I feel like if you want to get the money right you got to go through the hardest fights
04:29You know you got to show the people what you're really made of and this is what I'm doing with this fight every fight that
04:33I've taken
04:34They've been
04:36They've been hard to competitive fights
04:38You know where it looks like it's 50-50
04:40But I go in there and I do my thing and I show the people why I'm the best in the world
04:43And I think that was crazy
04:44But I'm gonna talk to you about this with Vegas because you didn't want to weigh around you want to make your own path
04:48But like there's probably two fights if you really want to see Canelo fight
04:51It's either against you or it's against Terrence Crawford, and it's like he comes out
04:55It's like it's nothing. It's no disrespect to Edgar Berlang who's a fine fighter
04:58But like I think as the fans know like we know who we want to see so like when that was the fight made
05:03Like did you like I roll out it like were you like this is this is really where it's going well
05:07You know what I mean
05:08I wouldn't I wouldn't have had a problem with that fight if Edgar Berlanga would have went out there and really put everything out on
05:13The line he didn't do anything right it was just defense the whole fight not trying to get knocked out
05:17So it's like when you get an opportunity like that like come on bro like go after go get it everybody's paying
05:22High amounts like 100 bucks 90 bucks for this pay-per-view for you to not even give everything I got in there
05:29You know I mean, so that's what I feel like
05:31That's why Canelo's has been avoiding me because he knows I'm not you know I'm going in there. I'm putting everything in that ring
05:36I got leaving nothing to chance, and I'm putting on you know
05:39I'm working my ass off, and I'm I know I have a hundred percent confidence in myself
05:42And I know whoever I get in the ring with I'm gonna end up winning. You know I mean so
05:47The I the people that Canelo is picking you know there do we all know they're not the best you know
05:53There's only one guy that everybody wants to see Canelo fight, and that's me
05:56And you know it's kind of unfortunate that that's that's not happening, but you know there's still other great fighters
06:01You know I always said I always told people that what happened what happens when you don't get a Canelo fight
06:06Or you get the Canelo fight wait is your career over you know I mean you still have to make the past your own path
06:12You still have to you know show the people while you were great
06:14And I feel like my career if I never get the Canelo fight is fine with me
06:18You know my my destiny is chasing greatness mm-hmm this fight against a morale
06:22You know he's a guy who has finished a lot of fights early
06:24You're a guy like you do a lot of your finishing late like you're a storm late in fights
06:28How do you feel like that's gonna play into your advantage because because I don't feel like he's been in there with anybody who can
06:33Bring it that long through a fight like you that's the difference between me and him he's fought against people that are not really good
06:40That's why he finishes them early I fought people are experienced veterans in the ring and I finish them and finish them late so that it's
06:46gonna be
06:47You know my my experience versus you know his
06:52Kim just trying to go in there
06:53You know trying to score a quick knockout or whatever it is that his game plan is I don't really know what he's gonna
06:57Try to do, but I'm 100% focused, and then I know that this fight is not gonna be easy
07:02You know it's probably gonna end in the later round so
07:05My plan is to go in there and drown him in the deep in the deep waters
07:08And then do you have your eye on I mean better be Evan Beevil are gonna rematch
07:13Yeah, first of all what do you think of the first fight because a lot of people thought better
07:16Be I've got the got the generous rub. They're keeping his belt, so what did you think of the first fight?
07:20Did you think Beevil won? I absolutely think Beevil won
07:22I think you know as for combination wise and ring generalship Beevil had it
07:27I think maybe better be have stole some of the later rounds
07:31But I think it was clear victory on my part from Beevil so I think
07:36I'm thinking he's gonna win again. You know to be honest with you. I feel like if he goes in there
07:41He looks a little bit
07:42You know he does the same game plan
07:44You know I think he might take the the victory this time because I thought he took it for sure the first time
07:48I mean that would be a hell of a feather in your cap though David like if you got that matchup down the road
07:53I mean
07:53That's the latest Canelo loss that everybody looks at and they're like man Beevil pieced him up if you were to go in there
07:58And be Beevil stop him whatever that is take the belt from him and become undisputed
08:03That's that's kind of like your your checkmate move
08:05Yeah, and I would definitely beat Beevil I used to spar him back then and we have some amazing spar sessions
08:10but I always got the better of them and
08:12The last time I sparred him I was 21 22 years old now. I'm more experienced
08:16I turned 28 tomorrow
08:18So I'm coming into my prime
08:19And you know I'm just a more focused and more hungry or fighter than I was when I was 22
08:24So I know this David Benavidez will walk through Demetri Beevil
08:28How uh you know so are there any things for this fight?
08:31Are you training differently like this is another run at 175 you won the belt in June?
08:36How did you like first of all just going up to 175 after starving yourself to 168 all those years?
08:41Yeah, so my performance the way I rate my performance a lot of people didn't know
08:46But I had a lot of injuries going towards this fight going into this fight
08:51seven weeks left to the fight you know I had torn a
08:55Ligament no tendon tendon yeah ligament or tails of those pretty severe injury
09:01They said I needed seven weeks to recover from that. I'm like well. I don't got that
09:04I mean, so I'm gonna go ahead and use my go
09:07I'm gonna go ahead and just use my left hand you know hopefully by the time the fight gets there
09:11This one's gonna be recovered, so I'm throwing jab throwing jab. You know for like two weeks
09:17I think there's five weeks left to the fight
09:19I throw an uppercut and I hit the guy in the top of his head right here
09:23I actually fractured that you know I couldn't really I couldn't even use that either that hurt a lot
09:28So then I'm like well. I'm not gonna cancel the fight anyway, so I'm gonna just give it a couple time
09:32I'll give it some time to heal up
09:34Two weeks later. I'm sparring in there again and in the 12th round is my pride the only 12 12 round sparring session
09:42I did with three different three different people in the last round I go back to the corner
09:46And I get cut in my eye I get 13 stitches
09:49So there I was like man, I mean it I was really torn up
09:53I'm like man
09:54I don't know what to do right I mean because I have this injury of this injury have a cut and
09:58Then but because the fans mean so much to me
10:01I knew this was a big deal to the people boxing and to the people PBC
10:05Javante Davis a monster car airline, and then I'm called main event
10:08You know we really don't get big big cars like that on the PBC side, so I'm like you know what?
10:14I'm gonna just go in there, and you know I'm gonna pray for the best
10:18I'm pray that my hands are healthy every time I mean the stamina there everything is there
10:22So I'm gonna just go on with the fight, and I kid you not in the dressing room
10:27I'm doing mitts. I feel the hand swelling up. I feel this hurt, so I'm already kind of nervous
10:32But I went in there man. I did a great job
10:34I think I won eight eight or nine rounds against a veteran you know he was a silver medalist in the Olympics
10:40And he was a unified champion to light heavyweight. There's only lost besides you better be it's a better beer
10:45so he's a great fighter you know I mean so I
10:48Learned a lot from that fight. I learned that I have so much heart
10:51You know I mean and nothing's gonna stop me, but now with this fight
10:53It's completely different because I don't have no injuries. You know I mean
10:57Worked my hands are 100% healed and you know I feel like
11:01With this fight. I'm definitely gonna be able to put you know my put some weight on my punches
11:06And you know I'm that when you have two injured hands. You can't really punch it 100%
11:10So now this one. I'm 100% I feel great
11:13And I can't wait to go in there perform for the fans
11:15Having to like wait like six months to like get back after it like that's got to be such a as a pro athlete
11:21You know I tell like Leroy's like a week you gotta wait
11:24That's crazy, but like after having to wait that many times to get back in there and feel like all right now
11:30I feel like I might be is that is that a hard thing mentally for you?
11:32Yeah, kind of because when I I had I had to take three months off for my hands
11:36That's what I'm saying it probably helped you because you can say okay. I got through it. Let's sit back and heal yeah
11:42Let's heal before we get back into it, so you said you like the three months, but the type of person
11:47I am I only like taking a couple weeks off done my fight, and then I go back into the gym
11:52So when I went in back into the gym, I'm like man the hands should be good. You know let me just
11:57Hit that right hand I gotta go I gotta go check it up, and they told me you got you can't do nothing for three
12:03Months he's off you want to keep having injuries, and you keep training. He's all you can't do nothing for three months
12:08So I was running this stuff. I still stayed in the gym and but now I'm 100%
12:12Healed up, and I'm very excited very happy my father Jose Benavides my whole team team Benavides
12:19You know I'm training with my strength and conditioning trainer memo already again, so man. I'm very excited
12:24Is there something about David Morrell like it?
12:26What is like the number one thing you guys are worried about that he brings to the table?
12:29I'm worried about nothing
12:30I'm worried about nothing now, but as of me being smart and I got to use all my skills
12:35I got to use my head movement. I got to use my distance. I got to use my
12:38Cutting the distance I got to use the ring ring generalship body shots
12:42I got to use everything basically I got a I got to put
12:44I got to pull all my tools out of the tool bag and use them all that night, but David Morrell
12:49You know I said like I never I never
12:52Took nothing away from him usually he looks like he has a strong. He has a lot of ko percentage
12:58He has power you know he has speed, but you know I feel like what I have in there
13:03You know I have so much experience. You know I've been boxing since I was two years old, so I have
13:0826 years boxing you know I mean, and then I've sparred the best since I was a little kid, and I fought great fighters
13:14I've been at this level
13:15You know a couple more times than he has so I'm gonna use all that to my advantage come February 1st
13:19You know your brother box that one of this with your dad here
13:22How many fights you have to break up between you and your brothers like like?
13:25How often does this happen like is this happening from the time you guys are in the sandbox like it immediately like so my brother back?
13:31Then I never try to fight him because you would always beat me up, but then once we got to like
13:3714 15 I started sparring him, and then we started having that little rivalry
13:42But as a tough love we never had tough love you know I've always respected my brother a lot
13:46You know those the Sony reason why box because I wanted to be like my brother
13:50So as of me fighting him all the time there wasn't we there was there was no there's no animosity like those
13:56Mutual respect from a challenge yeah, I get to the challenge come on dude got you this I got you now
14:02You can't mess with you now
14:05There's a there's a big matchup coming this week Tyson Fury who's sick. What do you think happens in the rematch to be honest with you?
14:11I think
14:13if Tyson Fury remains focused I
14:16Don't think he wins
14:18But I think who's sick still beats him. You know I mean, I think it's gonna be a more competitive fight
14:22I think the only reason why
14:25Woosik I mean no no no I'm sorry
14:28Woosik you know he has to just keep doing his game plan
14:32You know boxing cutting the angles, and you know looking for that overhand left
14:36You know I mean, I think if Tyson Fury stays more disciplined and doesn't fool around it might be a closer fight
14:41But I still got Woosik a hundred percent
14:43What makes him so good man cuz he's in there with a bunch of dudes bigger than him
14:46But like he's he's so like he doesn't seem like he gets rattled by anything like what when you watch him as a fellow champion
14:51What makes Woosik so damn good the number one thing that makes Woosik the best fight in the world in my opinion is his heart
14:58He's in there with giant bro, Woosik is not even that much bigger than he's like this much bigger than me
15:03He did he's not buff. He's not none of that, but his movement his skill his IQ
15:08You know I mean that just that just sets him apart for some and his experience
15:13You know I think he has like two gold medals or something like that. You know and he's fought the best
15:17He's fought heavy hitters. He's fought. He's fought everything so his his his experience and his IQ and
15:24His heart just sets him apart from everybody if Canelo does end up fighting Terrence Crawford
15:29There's some rumblings about that. Do you feel like that's an easy fight for Canelo?
15:32Do you feel like Terrence Crawford wins that fight like what do you make of that if that does go down?
15:35To be honest with you is it's like one of those like I wouldn't be surprised if you know I mean
15:40I wouldn't be surprised if Terrence Crawford gives him a great fight
15:42And I wouldn't be surprised if Canelo beats him easy. You know I mean Terrence Crawford is a great fighter
15:48But he's coming up from when his last fight was at 154, and it was it was a super tough fight
15:54Yeah, so imagine. He's going up to more weight class 168 and 168
15:58You know there's there's weight classes for a reason, but I mean Terrence Crawford. He's a great fighter
16:02So he could definitely make it a great fight
16:05But like I said I wouldn't be surprised if it's not a hard fight for Canelo
16:08So you mentioned you think morale it ends and like you envision like after six round you think you're gonna wilt them like is that?
16:16Is that what is in your mind or like how do you this this fight plays on your mind against everyone's got nothing for you?
16:21Like what do you think when do you beat them to be honest with you the way?
16:24I think of this fight in my mind I
16:27Think of it that I got a you know
16:29Establish my game plan and stay consistent in my game plan
16:32I don't in no no way in this no time in this fight
16:36I think it's gonna be easy fight, but if I establish my game plan
16:40You know and do the stuff that I know I could do I will make it easy
16:44You know I mean, but I got to remain focused in there. You know I can't mess around
16:48I got it
16:48You know I got to do everything I know how to do and you know just follow the game plan and follow my dad's instructions
16:53And you know that's always worked for me, and it's always made the fights that much easier
16:56But I got to stay 100% focused the whole fight
16:59David Benavidez go by his fight against David Morrell in Vegas February 1st live on pay-per-view always reach the time man
17:05Thanks so much. Thank you