It was hard to teach patience to a fighter who was fast-tracked from the very start. (photo by Ryan Hafey(

David Morrell Jr. came to learn that a fight with David Benavidez would come along at the right time. Still, it was tough to suppress the urge to call him out barely a half-dozen fights into his pro career.

“Everything happens for a reason,” Morrell told The Ring. “It’s been talked up for a while. My team mentioned it quite a bit and I hoped it would happen earlier. But looking at everything that’s gone into this [event], it’s clear that there is no better time than now. This is when the stars come out to shine.

“We have everything we need in front of us. This will be the springboard to bigger and better things.”

Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) and Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) meet this Saturday atop a PBC on Prime Pay-Per-View event from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The bout takes place in the 175-pound light heavyweight division, where both fighters currently hold secondary titles after having also won belts at super middleweight. It was at the lower weight where they began to circle one another, and where demand began to build for a head-on collision.

Such a fight never really came close to happening at 168, however. They remained on separate paths—Benavidez on the hunt for The Ring champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KOs) and Morrell just taking on whoever his team put in front of him.

Things changed for the better in 2024, when both moved up in weight. Benavidez won an interim WBC light heavyweight belt last June and is The Ring’s No. 2 contender at the weight. Morrell claimed the WBA ‘Regular’ 175-pound title less than two months later, good enough to land at No. 8 in The Ring’s top ten contender list.

Even at that point, it appeared that separate plans would remain in place until Benavidez made a point to call for Morrell by name. That decision meant both fighting just once in 2024 and scrapping other plans to instead meet this weekend.

The timing is perfect; it comes three weeks before The Ring/undisputed light heavyweight king Artur Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) meets former WBA titlist Dmitry Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) in a highly anticipated rematch. Per a WBC ruling, the winners of those two bouts will be mandated to fight next.

“It's definitely perfect,” Morrell said of the alignment. “Me and Benavidez fight now. Beterbiev and Bivol three weeks later. It makes things more exciting but you just have to focus on what’s first before what’s next.

“I win this fight. After that, my mentality is that I’ll fight anyone. So whoever it will be after this, let’s just do it.”