In October, boxing fans were treated to the top matchup that could be made at light heavyweight between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol. Now, the second-best fight in the division has been confirmed.
WBC interim champion David Benavidez and WBA regular titlist David Morrell will collide in one of the sport’s most exciting matchups on Saturday, Feb. 1 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The bout will be a PBC pay-per-view event streamed on Amazon Prime Video worldwide.
Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) previously twice held the WBC super middleweight title and had a stellar 2023, recording wins over Caleb Plant and Demetrius Andrade, but could not get boxing’s top star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to share the ring with him.
As a result, he reluctantly moved up to light heavyweight this past June, winning an underwhelming decision over former beltholder Oleksandr Gvozdyk to claim the WBC interim title.
With Beterbiev and Bivol likely heading towards a rematch, Benavidez sets his sights on the next toughest available challenge at 175 pounds, Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs).
Cuba’s Morrell held the secondary version of the WBA super middleweight title for more than three years but also moved up to light heavyweight this past August, and similar to Benavidez, settled for a disappointing decision over Radivoje Kalajdzic to become a two-time regular champion.
The winner of Benavidez vs. Morrell will hold the strongest claim for a shot at the Beterbiev vs. Bivol rematch winner, should the latter pair indeed fight again.
In the co-feature, Stephen Fulton (22-1, 8 KOs) and Brandon Figueroa (25-1-1, 19 KOs) will rematch for the WBC featherweight title. Fulton edged a majority decision over Figueroa in 2021 to unify the super bantamweight championships in their first meeting.
Fulton lost his two 122-pound belts in a one-sided defeat to Naoya Inoue in 2023 and jumped up to featherweight earlier this year winning a split decision over Carlos Castro. Figueroa beat Mark Magsayo to win the WBC interim title in 2023 and was upgraded to a full titlist recently as Rey Vargas was made champion in recess.
The first fight between Figueroa and Fulton was regarded as one of the best fights of 2021, and the rematch could provide more of the same.
Elsewhere on the show, Isaac Cruz (26-3-1, 18 KOs) looks to bounce back from his defeat to Jose Valenzuela in August against Angel Fierro (22-2-2, 17 KOs). Fierro is also coming off the back of a defeat, having been outboxed by Alfredo Santiago in his light welterweight debut in June.
In the pay-per-view opener, middleweight contender Jesus Ramos Jr. (21-1, 17 KOs) battles the one-time unified junior middleweight king Jeison Rosario (24-4, 18 KOs). Ramos Jr. lost a controversial decision to Erickson Lubin in 2023. Rosario fought to a split draw with Jarrett Hurd in August.
