David Morrell Jr. believes in monsters now.
"The Mexican Monster" David "El Monstro" Benavidez made sure of that Saturday night, overwhelming Morrell with a steady flow of high volume punching toward a unanimous decision victory. Even being knocked down in a flash during the 11th round didn't stop Benavidez from cruising to victory.
Judges inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada scored it 115-111, 115-111 and 118-108 all in favor of Benavidez who became the unified interim WBC and WBA "Regular" light heavyweight world champion and mandatory challenger to face the winner of the February 22 rematch between undisputed 175-pound king Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
Though the fight had plenty of ebbs and flows, Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) chipped and eroded away at Morrell (11-1, 9 KOs) with a unrelenting offering of punches, which included slicing uppercuts and the right and left hooks he wrapped around the Cuban's high guard.
Morrell had success at times, scoring a flash knockdown of Benavidez in the 11th round, but was penalized a point for hitting "El Monstro" after the bell of the same frame. Overall, Benavidez' stand-up fighting overwhelmed the Cuban toward his first pro loss as the former connected on 41 percent of his punches to the latter's 27 percent.
"He was easier to hit than expected, so every opportunity I seen, I took, I went for it," Benavidez told Prime Video after collecting his 30th pro victory.
He then looked forward to his next move which could be challenging the Beterbiev-Bivol rematch winner.
"I just want to be the best of my era," Benavidez said. "Whoever they need me to fight next, I want to unify all four titles. So if that's next, that's next."