Kalvan Henderson is another of David Morrell’s knockout victims to suspect something was up with their fight. He came out of the woodwork to complain about his suspicions about him and suspected something was fishy with the absence of drug tests for their fight in 2022.
Henderson (19-2-1, 13 KOs) was knocked out in the fourth round by Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) on June 4, 2022 at the Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He said there were no drug tests for the fight, and he felt something fishy was going on. Although he has no evidence and is guessing, he thinks something is up.
Morrell looked thin in the fight and not like someone on PEDs, but Henderson is still suspicious. Another of Morrell’s knockout victims, Sena Agbeko, recently spoke about his suspicions of him due to a lack of drug tests. Although he also has no evidence, he still spoke.
Henderson thinks WBC interim light heavyweight champion David Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) will defeat WBA ‘ordinary’ champion Morrell in their fight on February 1 because he says he is bigger than him and has better stamina. They are the same size, but still.
“Superman” Morrell? Henderson has doubts
“I went to Morrell’s second home in Minnesota. No one else wanted to fight him. I had a great game plan. I felt the fight was stopped early. Did the guy (Morrell) win the fight? Yeah, but we had a game plan for the deeper rounds,” Kalvin Henderson said Battle hypestill bitter about his fourth-round TKO loss to David Morrell two years ago on June 4, 2022.
“I catch him with body shots, and I hear what those body shots do to him. I knew he was going to slow down eventually. That fight was supposed to be drug tested, and we both signed paperwork for it to be drug tested. We get to the fight in the locker room, and the WBA forgets to order the drug tests.
“So, that’s another thing. We are not only fighting politics. We’re fighting a potentially dirty fighter in Morrell… After the fight there was still no drug test. There is something fishy. Superman only exists in comic books,” Henderson said when asked if there was anything ‘fishy’ about David Morrell.
There was nothing “Superman” about Morrell getting Kalvin Henderson’s knockout in the fourth round. He backed him up against the ropes and nailed him with several hard blows; the referee saw that Henderson was taking some bad shots and blocked them.
He would have been hurt if he had allowed Morrell to continue to beat Henderson. There was too much time left in the round for the referee to let the fight continue.
“These guys have a lot of money behind them, a lot of money in things beyond their control. So, obviously, they’re going to be put in the best position possible,” Henderson said. “This guy (Morrell) was bigger than me in the ring on fight night. Fighters know. Before the weigh-in, he drank Gatorade before stepping on the scale. Something is fishy.”
It’s a huge reach on Henderson’s part to infer from Morrell drinking Gatorade at the weigh-in that he was using PEDs. This is crazy guesswork on his part. He drinks Gatorade; therefore he is dirty. It makes no sense, but if you’re trying to understand why Morrell beat you, you need to find something rather than accept that you weren’t good enough.
Benavidez to beat Morrell?
“I think Benavidez is going to beat Morrell on sheer size and stamina. Benavidez threw hard punches for 15 rounds straight. So, I think his relentless pressure and non-stop (punching) is going to make a difference in this fight. I don’t think Benavidez’s power will carry over to 175,” Henderson said.
Kalvin is a little confused. Benavidez is no bigger than Morrell, and his stamina at 175 is no better than his at 168. We saw this in Benavidez’s last fight at 175 when he knocked out Oleksandr Gvozdyk after six rounds. Morrell has a longer reach than Benavidez by four inches, hits harder, and has better hand speed and technical ability. You wouldn’t expect Henderson to know the details between Morrell and Benavidez because he’s a fighter and doesn’t analyze fights like writers do.
“At 168 he was big. Some people have called him a ‘weight bully’, but at 175 it’s more of a natural weight class for him. So, I think you’ll see longer fights for Benavidez and Morrell, maybe also in that weight class because of bigger guys,” Henderson says.
Things are going to be very different for Benavidez at 175 compared to his weight bully days at 168, where he regularly enjoyed a massive size advantage over his mix of old, weak and severely flawed opposition that his promoters pitted him against for 28. of his first 29 fights of his career.
You can’t blame ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez for choosing to stay at 168 for so long because it allowed him to carve out a career that otherwise wouldn’t have been there if he fought where he should have at 175 hasn’t been since he turned pro in 2013.
If Benavidez was fighting at light heavyweight, he probably would have been beaten many times already. He would be just one of the group, along with other contenders such as Joshua Buatsi, Willy Hutchinson and Oleksandr Gvozdyk.
