David Benavidez seems to have set up a pre-emptive excuse saying that his “regular” WBA lightweight champion opponent, David Morrell, was lax about wanting to be drug tested by VADA. The two fight on February 1st on PBC on Prime Video PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
In an interview, Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) continued at length, talking about Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) and the drug tests, bringing up two of his knockout victims, Sena Agbeko and Kalvin Henderson , to support. his argument.
A “Safety Net”?
It seems to some as Benavidez, 28, is wearing this to muddy the waters in case he loses to Morrell. If Benavidez is beaten, the fans won’t come down hard on him and abandon ship because of the suspicions they would have about Morrell using drugs. It would give the “Mexican Monster” a free pass to escape the backlash he would normally receive from losing 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 in advance, as this spoils 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 beaten to points.
Benavidez’s fighting style, which charges on every punch, will put him at risk of being knocked out by Morrell. He was hit a lot in his last fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, fighting like that, and he was lucky that the Ukrainian fighter was mostly pushing 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 sloppy style to land powerful shots. He hurt Benavidez in the 12th round with a punch to his soft midsection that shut him down completely for the last 30 seconds of the fight. Benavidez didn’t throw anything after being hit by a right hand from Gvozdyk at the basket in that round.
Benavidez’s preemptive plea
“It’s not an excuse, but when you go through other fighters who say, ‘Hey, I was tested by VADA, but David Morrell was not tested,’ it brings a lot of questions,” said David Benavidez to the mediabringing his suspicions of David Morrell being a dirty fighter ahead of his February 1 fight.
“I am not the only fighter who said this. There were two other fighters (former victims of Morrell knockout Sena Agbeko and Kalvin Henderson). We are talking about Agbeko. He says that he was tested all over the field. David Morrell was not tried, and after the fight, they didn’t do a drug test, which was a little strange for me.
“I don’t really care. Even if he (Morrell) was on steroids, I beat the *** out of him, but if you’re a dirty fighter, you’re going to be exposed. That’s why they make a So big deal. They didn’t want to be tested, but dirty fighters are going to be exposed in the game, and it’s not good for people to use steroids said Benavidez.
It’s so disappointing to see Benavidez constantly mention the drug test, making it clear that he planted an excuse in the fans’ minds before his fight with Morrell. The Cuban believes this is a sign that Benavidez is “afraid” of him.
“We are tested because I keep putting pressure on VADA, saying: ‘We have to test. We have to try. These are the high caliber fights that need testing. When I fought Caleb Plant, and I fought Demetrius Andrade, we had the test 14 weeks out. For this, we have barely started testing nine weeks out.
“It’s not like I’m asking for things that I haven’t done for myself. I’ve been tested more than anyone by VADA,” Benavidez said.
