David Benavidez defeated David Morrell by unanimous decision in the main event of a boxing card at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Benavidez retained his WBC light heavyweight interim title and won Morrell’s WBA light heavyweight “regular” belt. Artur Beterbiev is the undisputed champion at 175 pounds.
Benavidez had been lobbying for a fight against super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez for years, but after many tries, Benavidez moved up in weight. In his first fight at light heavyweight, he defeated Oleksandr Gvozdyk by unanimous decision.
After a successful amateur career, Morrell turned professional in August 2019. After scoring nine knockouts in his first 10 fights, Morrell went the distance against Radivoje Kalajdzic on the Terence Crawford vs. Israil Madrimov undercard in August. Morrell defended the WBA belt six times before losing to Benavidez.
