David Benavidez appears to be making a pre-emptive excuse by saying that his opponent WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion David Morrell was relaxed about wanting to be drug tested by WADA. The two fight on February 1st on PBC on Prime Video PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
In the interview, Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) went into length, talking about Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) and drug testing, mentioning two of his knockout victims, Sena Agbeko and Kalvin Henderson, to support his argument.
“Safety net”?
It seems to some that Benavidez, 28, is making this point to muddy the waters in case he loses to Morrell. If Benavidez gets beaten, the fans won’t lash out and abandon ship because of suspicions that Morrell is using drugs. This would give the ‘Mexican Monster’ a free pass to avoid the backlash he would have otherwise received after his loss to the Cuban Morrell.
“Morrell actually submitted his paperwork to VADA 1 day BEFORE Benavidez in late November. #Fact,” Keith Idec said on X.
It’s unfortunate that Benavidez repeatedly discussed his doubts about Morrell ahead of time, because it tarnishes the match and diminishes interest. But for Benavidez, it gives him a built-in excuse if something goes wrong and he gets knocked out or defeated on points.
Benavidez’s flawless fighting style, loading up on every punch, will put him in danger of being knocked out by Morrell. In his last fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, fighting like that, he took a lot of punches and he was lucky that the Ukrainian fighter was mostly pushing his punches and not putting maximum power into them like he was.
In the second half of that fight, Gvozdyk repeatedly took advantage of Benavidez’s careless style to nail him with powerful punches. He injured Benavidez in the 12th round with a kick to his soft midsection that completely shut him down in the last 30 seconds of the fight. Benavidez didn’t throw anything after Gvozdyk hit him with a right hand in the breadbasket in that round.
Benavidez’s preemptive excuse
“It’s not an excuse, but when you go through other fighters who say, ‘Hey, I was tested by WADA, but David Morrell wasn’t tested,’ it brings up a lot of questions,” David Benavidez told to the mediavoicing his suspicions that David Morrell is a dirty fighter ahead of their February 1 fight.
“I’m not the only fighter who said this. There were two other fighters [former Morrell knockout victims Sena Agbeko and Kalvin Henderson]. We are talking about Agbek. He says they tested him throughout the camp. David Morrell was not tested, and after the fight they did not do a doping test, which I found strange.
“I don’t care about that. Even if he [Morrell] was on steroids i would beat him to death but if you are a dirty fighter you will expose yourself. That’s why they make such a big deal. They didn’t want to test themselves, but dirty fighters will be exposed in the game. It’s not good for sports, and it’s not good for people to use steroids. So I’m not going to let that s*** slide,” Benavidez said.
It’s so disappointing to see Benavidez keep bringing up drug testing, making it clear that he’s planting an excuse in the minds of fans ahead of his fight with Morrell. The Cuban believes this is a signal that Benavidez is “afraid” of him.
“We are tested because I keep putting pressure on VADA, saying: ‘We have to be tested. We have to test.’ These are high caliber fights that need to be tested. When I fought Caleb Plant and Demetrius Andrade, we tested for 14 weeks. For this one, we only started testing after nine weeks.
“It’s not like I was looking for things I didn’t do myself. “VADA tested me more than anyone else,” said Benavidez.
