David Benavidez continues to use the steroid talk as a selling point for his fight against “regular” WBA lightweight champion David Morrell on February 1st.
It’s a strange way to promote the fight and get fans interested, but Benavidez doesn’t seem to have much to say during his interviews. Also, it is always making excuses for his abysmal performance in his debut at 175 against Oleksandr Gvozdyk last June. It sounds so weak.
PPV Title Fight
Next month, Benavidez will have his interim WBC 175-lb title on the line against Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) in their PBC headliner 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 associated with steroids,” David Benavidez told Xicana Boxing about David Morrell, talking about his unfounded suspicions that he was dirty before the his fight on February 1.
“The guy who fought 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 people if he had something to hide, why would we ask for more drug tests?
“We had nothing to hide and that is why we try to call it a clean boxing. We test as much as possible to make sure there is no funny business.
“I’m definitely going to punish him,” Benavidez said of Morrell. “As for when it will end, I don’t think about it. I think I will go and make my game plan. The difference between my last fight (Oleksandr Gvozdyk) and his fight (Radivoje Kalajdzic). I went there with two injured hands.
Excuses or reality?
“I had a torn tendon there, I had a fractured eye, and I had a cut when I had 10 stitches three weeks before the fight. So, I already went through a lot of adversity. The fight against which I went it was a lot better than the fight he went against,” Benavidez said.
“I think because of that, it shows that I’m a different caliber fighter. A lot of people if they had one hand hurt, they called off the fight. I had two hands hurt. I didn’t call off the fight because it was a big deal.
“Me and Tank were fighting on the same card on PPV. So, imagine if I had pulled out of the fight, I would have let my fans down. I care about my fans more than anything,” said Benavidez.
What “The Mexican Monster” doesn’t say is that it was worse against Gvozdyk than Morrell did in his one-sided victory over Kalajdzic. Morrell hurt his opponent repeatedly in that fight to the head, and his body got stronger as the fight wore on. In contrast, Benavidez never hurt Gvozdyk and got tired after six rounds. He took a hit down the stretch.
There was no sign of Benavidez being injured in his last fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15. He was throwing full force punches with both hands and didn’t seem hurt. where Benavidez looked bad was how he got tired in the second half, took a lot of hard shots from the 37-year-old Gvozdyk, and was injured to the body.
Fatigue has nothing to do with injured hands and everything to do with Benavidez not carrying extra weight well.
Benavidez apologized 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 had just let his performance speak for itself instead of making excuses later.
