Benavidez prevails, scores unanimous decision over Morrell

By Norm Frauenheim

LAS VEGAS — David Benavidez did the shuffle, touched the canvas, gestured at fans and his opponent.

He did it all.

He won.

In an often contentious light-heavyweight fight, Benavidez always survived, sometimes dominated and ultimately prevailed, scoring a unanimous decision Saturday night over Cuban David Morrell in front of a roaring crowd at T-Mobile Arena and an Amazon Prime pay-per-view audience.

The bout was called an eliminator, a bureaucratic euphemism that could mean just about anything. Maybe, a shot at 175-pound division’s undisputed title awaits. Maybe, the winner of the Feb. 22 rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dimitrii Bivol awaits.

But Saturday fight was loaded with evidence that Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) isn’t waiting on anybody or anything. He delivered a multi-angled performance that overcame some difficult moments with the kind of resilience that suggests he won’t be eliminated any time soon. 

Against the clever Morrell (11-1, 9 KOs), there were moments when a premature end to all his promises could have been there. He got knocked down late in the 11th when he was off balance and his gloves touched the canvas. Immediately, he rallied, with a furious assault in the round’s final seconds.  Morrell, stunned, reacted a second too late. He popped Benavidez with a counter one second after the bell sounded an end to the round. A one-point penalty was assessed by referee Thomas Taylor.

Would it have mattered? No. Benavidez had a solid advantage on all three scorecards. It was 115-111, 118-108 and 115-111, all for Benavidez. But his quick thinking in response to sudden chaos was a sign of some inexhaustible poise and a stubborn will to fight. It’s what Monsters do, he suggested during an interview in the middle ring immediately after the victory. This Monster is not extinct, despite talk that suggested otherwise.

“He knows that,’’ Benavidez said as he nodded toward Morrell’s corner. “Everybody knows that the Monster is still here. Now he does, too.’’

Morrell had no complaints in the immediate aftermath. He did not rip the referee for taking a point. He did not hurl profanities at Benavidez. They hugged after it was all over..

“It’s OK,’’ Morrell said. “I’m not going to criticize. Thank you, David Benavidez. I want to fight you again. I know I can beat you 

 The violence, promised by promoter Tom Brown, was there — fully locked and loaded — in an explosive fourth round. 

It happened at both sides of the ring, in opposite corners, each neutral only in name. First, there was Benavidez, trapping Morrell in one corner and unleashing punches at a familiar, yet still astonishing rate. Initially, it looked as if Morrell couldn’t tell where the punches were coming from. They rained in on the Cuban from impossible angles. Benavidez was delivering chaos. But  Morrell escaped, stepping to his right along the ropes and into the relative calm of the center ring.

But that calm proved to be an illusion, a little bit like the eye of a storm.

Within seconds, the winds of violence blew Benavidez into the opposite corner. This time, it was Morrell’s turn. With Benavidez’ back up against the ring post, Morrell unloaded a skillset noted for more precision than chaos. One big shot landed, rocking Benavidez’ head back almost as if it were attached to his shoulders by a long, loose spring.

“He hit me, but I thought he would hit harder,’’ Benavidez said.

Translation: Morrell couldn’t take away some of the intangibles that continue to make Benavidez so effective. He always has an answer. They were there Saturday night, at every moment and in every corner.  

Fulton wins, crowd boos

The sequel is never as good as the original.

Stephen Fulton and Brandon Figueroa proved the old line, ad nauseam, Saturday with an oh-so-dull rematch of their first encounter in November 2021.

Then, they did it at super-bantamweight in a bout won by Fulton in a majority-decision. Saturday, they were at featherweight with a World Boxing Council title at stake. But it didn’t matter. Fulton 23-1, 8 KOs) won the belt, scoring a unanimous decision.But there was no celebration. Only boos

On any scale, a restless T-Mobile Arena crowd waiting for the David Benavidez-David Morrell main course  just wanted it to end.

The crowd began booing in the fourth round. The booing continued for the next few rounds before some in the crowd began to chant insults and expletives in Spanish. In any language, Fulton-Figueroa 2 was boring. It also took some air out of the arena after an entertaining junior welterweight bout won by Isaac Cruz over Angel Fierro in the prior bout.

Neither Fulton nor Figueroa was able to mount, much less sustain, any kind of an attack. Fulton landed a powerful right. But not much more from either fighter after that.

In the twelfth, there were finally cheers from a crowd happy only that it had ended

Isaac Cruz wins decision in tough fight for belt named after Israel Vazquez

Israel Vazquez would have been proud.

Isaac Cruz and Angel Fierro fought with some of the heart and much of the same stubborn skill that defined the late Vazquez through 10 competitive rounds for a WBC Aztec belt named after the late Mexican great Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.

In the end, Cruz prevailed, winning a unanimous decision.

Go ahead and argue with the scores — 96-94, 97-93, 98-92, all for the better-known, more popular Cruz.

But there was no argument with the fight. It was a toe-to-toe, back-and-forth battle between two Mexicans. In the end Cruz (26-4-1, 18 KOs) prevailed. Perhaps, he had just a little bit more bite, although the 98-92 didn’t indicate that. It should have.

 But Fierro (23-3-2, 11 KOs) didn’t complain.

“I came here to give the fans a great fight and leave it all in the ring,” he said through an interpreter. “I don’t care about the judges, I care about the fans. But I do hope that ‘Pitbull’ gives me a rematch, because I think I deserve it.”

 With the crowd woofing and the dog still apparent in Cruz, nicknamed the Pitbull, things suddenly changed in the third round. That’s when Fierro let the barking fans and the aggressive Cruz know that he wasn’t going to go away meekly. 

Fierro, of Tijuana, used his advantages in height and reach to catch the incoming  Cruz with a succession of shots that wobbled him. Suddenly, some of that barking began to sound like begging in the pro-Cruz crowd..

Through the next two rounds, Cruz, of Mexico City, would back up Fierro with his power. But the stubborn Fierro always knew where he was. Cruz was moving, always incoming. He knows no other way. Hence, the dogged nickname.

Fierro caught again in the fourth 

And again in the fifth..

By the seventh and eighth, both junior-welterweights began to tire. Cruz didn’t pursue with the same energy. Fierro’s hands and shoulders began to droop, then drop. But in the 1oth and final round, both stood, exchanging blow after blow.

Israel Vazquez must have been smiling.

Ramos wins middleweight TKO, plans to go back to 154 pounds

Losses are lessons.

Lesson learned.

Jesus Ramos applied what he remembered from a painful, controversial loss to Erickson Lubin in his lone defeat and beat Jeison Rosario Saturday at T-Mobile Arena with a definitive finish.

He won by stoppage. This time, he eliminated any chance at a scorecard debate.

“I was hoping for a knockcout,” said Ramos, who plans to go back down to junior middleweight after the 160-pound victory, his second straight win since the Lubin loss.

But he didn’t quibble with the technical part of it, although Rosario appeared to when the referee ended at 2:18 of the eighth round on a card featuring David Benavidez-versus-David Morrell.

By then, Ramos (22-1, 18 KOs), who ended it with a succession of punches — two to the head and two to the body , was in complete control with a thorough body-to-head attack that broke down Rosario (24-5-2, 13 KOs). It also knocked him down in the seventh.

Ramos, fighting out of a southpaw stance, was effective with lead left hands in the opening round and again in the second. Rosario, a former welterweight champion, moved forward, but his advance was repeatedly met by agile combinations, body to head and head to body.

After three rounds, Ramos had landed 38 body punches, according to a ringside computer.. By the fifth, Ramos appeared to be gaining control of the middleweight bout. His fans, many from his hometown of Casa Grande in central Arizona, thought so.

“Ramos, Ramos,” they chanted.

By the sixth, Ramos’ body shots were having an impact — one that echoed through the arena. Rosario’s forward movement began to slow. His hands began to drop. It was an opportunity, and Ramos capitalized with one uppercut after another. Rosario was hurt. In the seventh he was down, dropped by a right-left combination from Ramos.. 

Photo by Ester Lin/Premier Boxing Champions