David Morrell Jr. doesn’t think he is on Canelo Alvarez’s “radar.”
The unbeaten Cuban understands, too, that he would be a high-risk, low-reward option for Jermall Charlo if the undefeated WBC middleweight champion decides to move up to the 168-pound division. Caleb Plant is coming off a loss to Alvarez, thus Morrell doesn’t consider the former IBF super middleweight champion an appealing potential opponent.
David Benavidez, however, has Morrell’s full attention.
“The guy that I want,” Morrell told BoxingScene.com, “and the guy that I have my sights set on, with a bullseye, is David Benavidez. No doubt about it.”
Phoenix’s Benavidez called out Morrell, among others, following his third-round, technical-knockout victory versus David Lemieux on May 21 at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona. Benavidez’s post-fight interview that night marked the first time Morrell heard Benavidez mention his name publicly, which made the WBA’s secondary super middleweight champion believe Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) is genuinely interested in fighting him, even though the talented Morrell has just six fights on his professional record.
“Why Benavidez?,” Morrell asked. “Because he’s supposed to be the bad boy in the division, the one that says everybody’s dodging him, that says why doesn’t anybody wanna fight with him. I hadn’t heard him mention my name until recently, but here I am. I’m ready for him. And I wanna be up to the challenge because I believe that it would be a great fight as well. If David is looking for me, I’ll be here.”
Morrell, 24, will defend his version of the WBA’s 168-pound championship against Kalvin Henderson on Saturday night at The Armory in Minneapolis. Showtime will televise Morrell-Henderson as its 12-round co-feature before Philadelphia’s Stephen Fulton (20-0, 8 KOs) defends his WBC and WBO 122-pound championships against Los Angeles’ Daniel Roman (29-3-1, 10 KOs) in the 12-round main event.
Minneapolis’ Morrell (6-0, 5 KOs) is listed by multiple sportsbooks as a 16-1 favorite to defeat Henderson (15-1-1, 11 KOs), of Fayetteville, Arkansas. If Morrell wins, his seventh victory as a professional will be viewed much the way Morrell assessed Benavidez’s win against Lemieux (43-5, 36 KOs), a former IBF middleweight champion from Montreal.
“I don’t think Lemieux was a measuring stick for Benavidez,” Morrell said. “Don’t get me wrong – Benavidez fought really well. He did what he had to do, but Lemieux was coming from a lower division and, you know, it was a given that he was gonna knock him out. I think David himself knew that he was gonna knock him out. And that fight, we all could see, was gonna be over in the first round if the bell hadn’t sounded. So, it was something where David did what he had to do.”
Showtime’s broadcast Saturday night is set to begin at 9 p.m. ET with a replay of Gervonta Davis’ sixth-round stoppage of Rolando Romero last Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Baltimore’s Davis (27-0, 25 KOs) led on two scorecards in a very competitive fight when he landed a counter left hand that dropped North Las Vegas’ Romero (14-1, 12 KOs) late in the sixth round. Romero reached his feet in time to beat referee David Fields’ count, but Fields stopped their lightweight title fight at 2:49 of the sixth round because of how a disoriented Romero responded to his commands.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
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