UNDENIABLY, 18-year-old Curmel Moton, 6-0 (5 KOs), is amongst the hottest prospects in boxing, with the 18-time national champion expected by many to become a multi-divisional world champion in years to come. After four fights in 2024, it has now been announced that ‘Big Deal’ will make his first outing of 2025 on the Benavidez-Morrell at the weekend.
Utah-born Moton has received high praise throughout his career, with pound-for-pound legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. taking interest and signing to manage the youngster after his phenomenal run in the amateurs, turning over with a record of 156-7.
Debuting professionally in 2023, Moton halted undefeated fighters in the first round of his first two bouts before cruising to an eight-round decision win against previously unbeaten Anthony Cuba in his third contest.
Since then, Moton has proved his destructive power once again by knocking out three consecutive opponents inside two rounds but famously missed weight by a mammoth 14 pounds ahead of a planned fifth appearance of the year back in November.
Fighting between super-featherweight and super-lightweight, it is expected that Moton will soon settle in the lightweight division, and despite assumed short notice, Moton will fight at lightweight this weekend.
Moton takes on Frank Zaldivar, 5-1 (3 KOs), a two-time runner-up in the Cuban national championships as an amateur, who suffered a first career defeat when he was outpointed by Yosdiel Napoles in a 10-round battle for the WBC International Silver lightweight title back in August.
Zaldivar can be expected to provide a stern test for his younger dance partner in a scheduled eight-rounder, whilst Moton will be keen to address any concerns regarding his professionalism with a statement performance.
Additionally, former world title challenger Jose Benavidez Jr, 28-3-1 (19 KOs), will appear on his brother’s undercard for a second straight fight, but will hope to do better than he did when routed by Jermall Charlo in his most recent fight in November 2023.
Benavidez Jr. now has just one victory in his last five scraps and will be tasked with Ohio’s Danny Rosenberger, 20-9-4 (10 KOs), the only man to have defeated Nico Ali Walsh, as a part of the preliminaries on fight night.
The full Benavidez-Morrell card will take place at the T-Mobile Arena on Saturday, February 1 and will be available to purchase and watch live on Amazon Prime Video PPV.
