David Benavidez will need to patiently bide his time in his bid for big fights at Super Middleweight, and he marked time on Saturday night with an eleventh round stoppage of Ronald Ellis in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Benavidez (24-0, 21 KOs) lost his WBC title on the scales last time out, had no problems making weight and is on a mission to meet the big hitters of the 168 pound division, with meetings with the likes of unified WBA ‘Super’ and WBC champion, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, IBF titbits, Caleb Plant, and Jermall Charlo, the WBC Middleweight holder all mentioned.
In his meeting with Ellis (18-2-2, 12 KOs), Benavidez, who is ranked as the number one contender by the WBC, was seldom troubled, and dominated proceedings here, with the 31-year-old brave, but ultimately outgunned.
Ellis, did have a little success in the early rounds, but it quickly became a Benavidez clinic, with the Arizonan dishing out some heavy punishment to his opponent, and showing a high work rate that could give the likes of Alvarez trouble if a meeting is arranged down the line.
The end mercifully came with a minute to go of the penultimate round, and seemed a sympathetic stoppage from referee Johnny Callas.
Mindful of the shellacking that Ellis had already taken, Benavidez trapped his opponent on the ropes and fired off a volley of punches, and the referee had seen enough.
After a self-assessment, thoughts for the undefeated 24-year-old quickly turned to future opposition.
“I rate my performance as pretty good, but I could have done better,” said the former world champion post-fight.
“I threw a lot of combinations, punches in bunches, there were a lot of times that I thought Ellis would quit, but he didn’t hats off to him. I hope the fans got a good show tonight.
A relentless @Benavidez300 stops Ronald Ellis in round 11 to stay unbeaten and one step closer to a title bout. #BenavidezEllis pic.twitter.com/VYyWmtSXa5
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) March 14, 2021
“I want all the big guys. The fans would love to see me against the big guys, because as you can see, I love throwing punches. I want Charlo, Canelo, Plant, all of them.”
Ellis was understandably upset at the stoppage, but it was fully justified.
“Hell yeah I wanted to finish the fight, I didn’t want to give him that satisfaction [of a stoppage win],” said the Massachusetts man.
“Hats off to him [Benavidez] he did what he had to do. He never hurt me, that’s the funny thing.”
Undercard results
Elsewhere, Issac Cruz Gonzalez (21-1-1, 15 KOs) took a close and competitive unanimous points win against Jose Matias Romero (24-1, 8 KOs)
Scores of 114-113 and 115-112 reflected a pretty even contest, but a 118-109 score in Cruz’s favour was simply way too wide.
Former world title challenger, Terrell Gausha won his Super Welterweight contest with Jamontay Clark via a second round stoppage.
Clark (15-2-1, 7 KOs) was caught with a big counter hook that dropped him heavily. Although he beat the count, Gausha (22-2-1, 11 KOs) finished the job with a follow up assault to force the referee’s intervention.
At Welterweight, Kudratillo Abdukakhorov (18-0, 10 KOs) remained unbeaten by scoring an eighth round retirement win against Javier Flores (15-3, 13 KOs) and at Super Bantamweight, Michael Angeletti (2-0, 1 KO) took a four round points win against Fernando Ibarra De Anda (2-6).
