Blue chip PBC super middleweight prospect David Benavidez announced his presence as a true contender tonight by thoroughly destroying long time contender Rogelio “Porky” Medina in Texas. Benavidez is now the mandatory challenger to the winner of the vacant September title fight between Callum Smith and Anthony Dirrell.
For the first few rounds, Porky Medina (37-8, 31 KOs) was his typical, effective self. Though he didn’t land a ton clean through David Benavidez’s (18-0, 17 KOs) high guard, Medina was able to somewhat consistently push Benavidez to the ropes and work behind an extremely high volume of punches for the weight. Benavidez would land flashy, clean shots in between and the first couple rounds were accordingly difficult to score.
From around the fourth on, however, Benavidez completely took over. Medina kept throwing, but Benavidez really started ripping beautiful, fluid combinations. Only 20 years old, Benavidez is something of a boxing prodigy at this point. His hands are fast and powerful and his technique is on point.
Medina was ruled held up by the ropes in the sixth, dropped on a body shot on the seventh, before being stopped by a spectacular flurry upstairs after dropping his hands due to being hurt to the body again.
Last year Porky Medina fought James DeGale to a virtual draw. Two fights later, he wasn’t even really competitive with David Benavidez. I really think this kid could be special.
In the show opener was Jorge Lara (29-0-2, 21 KOs) stopped respected gatekeeper Mario Briones (28-6-2, 21 KOs). This is the second good, early stoppage win for Lara in a row, but unfortunately I had a technical issue that stopped me from viewing the bout so I cannot comment beyond what I have already said.
