David Benavidez has cleared up the confusion about his next opponent, revealing that he’ll be facing 35-year-old veteran Jesse Hart next and not David Morrell, as previously reported.
Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) had gotten fans excited yesterday by telling them that he had “something big” cooking for them for his next fight, but as it turns out, it’s the journeyman Hart that he’s planning to Fight.
The backlash has already begun with fans on social media trashing so-called ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez for fighting another lesser fighter rather than taking a step up against the unbeaten WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion David Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs).
Morrell has been calling out Benavidez for a long time, trying to shame him into a fight in the same way that he’s done with Canelo Alvarez, but he’s shown no interest in fighting the Cuban talent.
There’s no way to read it other than old-fashioned flat-out fear because Morrell is no joke and can punch with either hand. Morrell has the kind of one-punch power that would give anyone in the 175-lb division problems, especially a fighter like Benavidez, who posts up in front of his opponents, trying to bury them with volume.
“I will be fighting Jesse Hart next, not [David] Morrell, but Morrell is a future opponent,” said David Benavidez on social media, clearing up the confusion about his title defense of his WBC interim light heavyweight belt.
Jesse Hart (31-3, 25 KOs0 has lost twice to Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez, and was beaten by Joe Smith Jr. Those are the only notable fighters on Hart’s resume. His losses to Gilberto came in 2017 and 2018. He’s ranked #3 WBO and #14 WBC.
“Cooking up something big for y’all for my next fight. Stay tuned,” Benavidez posted yesterday on social media.
Benavidez may have misjudged what fans consider to be a “big” fight because Jesse Hart doesn’t meet that criteria.
It’s believed that Benavidez doesn’t want to put his WBC mandatory spot at risk at 175 because he’s guaranteed a title shot against the winner of the Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol. If Benavidez were to fight Morrell, he would be putting that at risk and would lose out on a giant payday if he were beaten. The money Benavidez will get fighting the Beterbiev-Bivol winner will be millions.
