David Benavidez continues to use talk of steroids as a selling point for his fight against WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion David Morrell on February 1st.
It’s a strange way to promote the fight and keep fans interested, but Benavidez doesn’t seem to have much to say during his interviews. Also, he is still making excuses for his awful performance in his debut at 175 against Oleksandr Gvozdyk last June. It sounds so weak.
PPV title fight
Next month, Benavidez will have his WBC 175-pound interim title on the line against Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) in their main event on PBC on Prime Video PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“You’ve never heard my name associated with steroids. You’ve heard David Morrell’s name being associated with steroids,” David Benavidez told Xicana Boxing about David Morrell, talking about his unfounded suspicions that he was dirty ahead of their February 1 fight.
“The guy he fought with said they tested him but they didn’t test David Morrell, even after the fight there is no drug test. It’s strange because there are always drug tests right after the fight. I want to tell the people if I have something to hide why would I ask for more drug tests?
“We had nothing to hide and that is why we are trying to ask for a clean bill. We test as much as possible to make sure there is no funny business going on.
“I’m definitely going to punish him,” Benavidez said of Morrell. “As for when it’s going to end, I’m not thinking about that. I think I’m going to go in and do my game plan. The difference between my last fight (Oleksandr Gvozdyk) and his fight (Radivoje Kalajdzic). I went in there with two injured hands.
Excuses Or Reality?
“I had a torn tendon here, I broke a knuckle and I had a cut when I got 10 stitches three weeks before the fight. So, I’ve been through a lot of adversity. The fighter I faced was a lot better than the fighter he came up against,” Benavidez said.
“I think because of that it shows I’m a different caliber of fighter. A lot of people if they injured one hand they would have canceled the fight. I had two injured hands. I didn’t cancel the fight because it was a big deal.
“Tank and I fought on the same card on PPV. So, imagine if I had pulled out, I would have let my fans down. I care about my fans more than anything,” Benavidez said.
What ‘The Mexican Monster’ doesn’t say is that he looked worse against Gvozdyk than Morrell did in his one-sided win over Kalajdzic. Morrell repeatedly hurt his opponent to the head in that fight, and his body grew stronger as the fight went on. In contrast, Benavidez never hurt Gvozdyk and tired after six rounds. He took a beating.
There was no sign that Benavidez was injured in his last fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15th. He threw full force punches with both hands and did not appear injured. where Benavidez looked bad was how he tired in the second half, taking a lot of hard shots from the 37-year-old Gvozdyk and getting hurt to the body.
Fatigue has nothing to do with injured hands and everything to do with Benavidez not carrying extra weight.
Benavidez made excuses for his poor performance in his debut at 175 against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, blaming injured hands and a recent cut. It would have been better if he just let his performance speak for itself rather than giving excuses afterwards.
