David Benavidez turned 28 today, December 17th, as he prepares to fight WBA regular light heavyweight champion David Morrell on February 1st in Las Vegas. The ‘Mexican Monster’ Benavidez won the WBC interim light heavyweight title in his last fight in a lackluster performance against Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15th.

Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) had to battle hard to win a 12-round unanimous decision against Gvozdyk. In an interview, Benavidez says he went into the fight with both hands injured and a recent cut. He feels those injuries prevented him from being 100%. This is what I was afraid of. Benavidez is starting to break down from a long, long career in the sport.

Benavidez’s Injury Problems

He’s 28, but he might as well be 38.  Benavidez has been a professional for as long as undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev, and he’s also suffering repeated injuries. Being in the game for 10+ years does it to a fighter. It’s very difficult to continue fighting at the top level once a guy has been in the sport that long.

The injuries Benavidez is beginning to sustain could be a sign that his body is breaking down from a long career. Although he’s still young at 28, he’s been in the sport for 11 years. Many fighters are physically shot by the time they’re in their 10th year in the pro game. It has nothing to do with chronological age.

The physical breakdown is from wear & tear, and Benavidez could show early signs. First, the hands go, followed by reflexes and punch resistance. He hasn’t fought any punchers during his career other than 37-year-old Gvozdyk, who was lighting him up in their clash at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Benavidez got through that fight without getting knocked out, but he got some awful punishment from Gvozdyk.

David could be kidding himself because he was never a puncher, even at 168. His knockouts came from his volume punching against older, lesser fighters., and he’s never shown any hint of power during his 11-year career.

Benavidez looked the same as always, power-wise, and the only difference was that his shots had no effect at 175, as they had against the smaller veterans he’d been fighting at 168. He was huge for that division and was matched against mostly older figures in recent years by his promoters. Moving up to 175, Benavidez’s power wasn’t the same and clearly had nothing to do with both of his hands being injured.

Signs of Decline

“I had a lot of injuries going into this fight. Seven weeks going into the fight, I tore a ligament or a tendon [in right hand]. It was a pretty severe injury,” said David Benavidez to Tobin, talking about why he fought so poorly in his debut at 175 against Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15th in Las Vegas.

“They said I needed seven weeks to recover from that. ‘Well, I don’t got that. I’m going to go ahead and use my left hand, and hopefully, by the time the fight [Gvozdyk] gets there, this one [right hand] is going to be recovered. So, I’m throwing jabs and there’s five weeks before the fight, and I hit the guy [sparring partner] on top of the head.

“I actually fractured that and couldn’t use that [left hand] either. That hurt a lot,” said Benavidez, pointing out that both of his hands were injured while he was going into his fight against 37-year-old former WBC light heavyweight champion Gvozdyk. “So, I’m like, ‘I’m not going to cancel the fight anyways. So, I’m just going to give it some time to heal up.’”

The Gvozdyk fight was going to be a life & death one for Benavidez regardless of his injuries, as this guy was levels above the guys that he’d been feasting on at 168. Who did Benavidez beat at 168 that you can call a good fighter? These three are the best that Benavidez fought during his career as a super middleweight: Caleb Plant, Demetrius Andrade, and Anthony Dirrell. We’re not talking about A-level guys. Those are B-level fighters, and two of them were very old.

“Two weeks later, I’m sparring in there again, and in the 12th round, I get cut on my [left] eye,” Benaviez continued about his injury problem. “I get 13 stitches. I was torn up. I didn’t know what to do. I have this injury [left hand] and this injury [right hand], and I have a cut. Because the fans mean so much to me, and this is a big deal to the people of boxing and the people of PBC.

“I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to go in there and pray that my hands are healthy. My stamina is there. I’m just going to go on with the fight.’ I kid you not. I’m in the dressing room, and I’m hitting the mitts. I feel my [left] hand swelling up. I feel this [right hand] hurt. I’m already kind of nervous.”

Morrell Will Capitalize 

As I said, Benavidez’s body is breaking down from a long career in the sport, and he likely doesn’t have much time left. It’s probable that he’ll suffer injuries during his training camp for the Morrell fight. If he doesn’t postpone the fight, he’ll go into the contest against the Cuban Morrell with injuries to one or both hands. That’s not the type of guy that Benavidez can afford to be fighting with injuries because he will get chopped apart by this talent.

“I went in there, and I did a great job. I won eight or nine rounds against a veteran [Gvozdyk]. He was a silver medal in the Olympics, and he was a unified champion at light heavyweight [correction: Gvozdyk is a former WBC 175-lb champion, NOT a unified former champ],” said Benavidez.

Contrary to what Benafvidez says, he did NOT do a “great job” in his fight against Gvozdyk. That match looked 100% like it should have been scored a 12-round draw. While the judges did Benavidez a favor by giving him the win, he can’t count on being gifted a decision against Morrell because he’ll remove the judges from the equation with his power punching.