David “El Monstro” Benavidez continued his rise to the top with a bruising unanimous decision victory over Cuba's Morrell on Saturday night from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. With the victory, Benavidez retains his Interim WBC Light Heavyweight Title and picks up the WBA Light Heavyweight Title.

"This is 'El Monstro's' world,” said Benavidez. “Shout out to Morrell, I knew he'd be tough and that's why I prepared so hard for this. I'm happy we were able to give the fans a great show tonight.”

With both fighters promising fireworks throughout the promotion, Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) and Morrell (11-1, 9 KOs) backed up their words from the jump, engaging in a high-octane contest that saw each fighter provide the other with the stiffest competition of their careers so far. The early Fight of the Year frontrunner featured over 1000 combined punches thrown and ended with Benavidez earning the judges favor by scores of 118-108 and 115-111 twice.

After a back-and-forth start, Benavidez took control punch by punch, never letting Morrell breathe with his trademark series of thundering hooks and uppercuts. While the two fighters put forth a similar output of punches thrown (601 for Morrell vs. 553 for Benavidez), it was Benavidez who held a distinct edge in accuracy (40.5% vs. 27.5%) and shots landed (224 vs. 165) according to CompuBox.

"I wasn't surprised by anything he did because I knew he was a great fighter and that I had to prepare for everything,” said Benavidez. “I knew my defense had to be good. I actually thought he'd hit harder once we were in here. He was easier to hit than I expected. Every opportunity that I saw, I went for it.”

Morrell proved his championship mettle in defeat, and nearly put the momentum back in his favor in round 11 as he caught an off-balance Benavidez with a counter right hand that put him down for just the second time in his career. However, Morrell connected on a punch that was thrown after the bell ended round 11 and was deducted a point by referee Thomas Taylor.

After yet another action packed round in the 12th, the two rivals who had shared heated exchanges and altercations throughout the lead up to fight night, embraced and showed the mutual respect gained after sharing the ring.

After applauding Morrell’s efforts, Benavidez then set his sights on his continued rise at 175-pounds.

As previously reported by The Ring, Benavidez has a guaranteed ringside seat to the undisputed rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol, which takes place on February 22 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. With the victory over Morrell, Benavidez is the mandatory challenger to the winner.

"I just want to be the best of my era,” said Benavidez. “Whoever I need to fight next, I'll be ready for them. I want to unify all four titles, so if that's next, then that's next.”