David Benavidez appears to be making a pre-emptive excuse by saying that his opponent WBA ‘ordinary’ light heavyweight champion David Morrell was lax because he wants to be drug tested by VADA. The two fight February 1st on PBC on Prime Video PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
In an interview, Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) went further and talked about Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) and the drug testing, bringing up two of his knockout victims, Sena Agbeko and Kalvin Henderson, to support his argument .
A “safety net”?
It seems to some that Benavidez, 28, is bringing it up to muddy the waters in case he loses to Morrell. If Benavidez gets beat, fans won’t come down hard on him and abandon ship because of the suspicions they would have about Morrell doing drugs. This would give the ‘Mexican Monster’ a free pass to escape the backlash he would normally face if he lost to the Cuban Morrell.
“Morrell actually filed his VADA paperwork 1 day BEFORE Benavidez in late November. #Fact,” said Keith Idec X.
It’s pathetic that Benavidez repeatedly discussed his suspicions of Morrell ahead of time because it tarnishes the match and detracts from interest. But for Benavidez, it gives him a built-in excuse if something goes wrong and he gets knocked out or hit on points.
Benavidez’s ruthless style of fighting, charging at every punch, is going to put him at risk of being knocked out by Morrell. He was hit a lot in his last fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, who fought like this, and was lucky that the Ukrainian fighter mostly pressed his shots rather than putting maximum power into them like he was.
In the second half of that fight, Gvozdyk repeatedly took advantage of Benavidez’s carefree style to nail him with powerful punches. He hurt Benavidez in the 12th round with a punch to his soft middle that completely shut him down for the last 30 seconds of the fight. Benavidez didn’t throw anything after being hit to the breadbasket by a right hand from Gvozdyk in that round.
Benavidez’s preemptive apology
“It’s not an excuse, but when you go through other fighters saying, ‘Hey, I’ve been tested by VADA, but David Morrell hasn’t been tested,’ it brings up a lot of questions,” David Benavidez told the mediaand brings up his suspicions that David Morrell is a dirty fighter ahead of their February 1 fight.
“I’m not the only fighter who said that. There were two other fighters (former Morrell knockout victims Sena Agbeko and Kalvin Henderson). We are talking about Agbeko. He says he was tested the whole camp. David Morrell was not tested, and after the fight they did not do a drug test, which was quite strange to me.
“I don’t really care about that. Even if he (Morrell) was on steroids I would knock him out of the bag, but if you are a dirty fighter you will be exposed. This is why they make such a big deal. They didn’t want to be tested, but dirty fighters will be exposed in the game. It’s not good for the sport, and it’s not good for the people to use steroids. So, I’m not going to let that s*** slide,” Benavidez said.
It is so disappointing to see Benavidez constantly mentioning drug tests, making it clear that he is planting an excuse in the minds of fans before his fight with Morrell. The Cuban believes that this is a sign that Benavidez is “afraid” of him.
“We are being tested because I keep putting pressure on VADA and saying: ‘We have to test. We have to test.’ These are the high-caliber battles that must be tested. When I fought Caleb Plant, and I fought Demetrius Andrade, we tested 14 weeks out. For this one, we barely started testing nine weeks.
“It’s not like I asked for things that I didn’t do myself. I’ve been tested by VADA more than anyone,” Benavidez said.
