Benavidez: “I scared Morrell!”

David Benavidez is still convinced he has David Morrell “scared” of him for the strong push he gave him during their matchup at the media training session on December 17th to promote their February 1st fight.

‘The Mexican Monster’ uses fear to promote the fight, and talks about it often in his interviews, saying he sees it in Morrell.

This approach to fear makes no sense because it won’t stop Morrell from throwing punches on February 1st. You can tell by looking at Benavidez that he is worried about this fight. There are millions at stake for him.

Projection of Benavidez’s fear

Morrell fought two-time Cuban gold medalist July Cessar La Creuand he didn’t seem scared. This guy is a better fighter than Benavidez by a mile.

It seems important to him to be afraid of Morrell. If Benavidez believed in himself, he wouldn’t be so focused on seeing fear in the Cuban. The fact that he didn’t want to fight Morrell for two solid years is an indication that he was the one living in fear.

“I scared him. I definitely know he’s scared of me 100%. I’m going to beat him on February 1st,” David Benavidez said to bet on yourself. YouTube channel, talking about David Morrell.

“If I could sit on my punches, I would have taken that guy out of there,” Benavidez said of his last opponent, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, whom he beat last year on June 15. “That’s a big part of why I did this fight (winning the WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight title from Morrell).

“Also, another part is, I can go in there and shut this guy up. I can show the world what I’m about, and I can beat up David Morrell in front of everybody. If you beat the best of the best, the money will come. What what matters to me is the respect you get from the people, and the money will come,” Benavidez said.

The part about Benavidez not being able to sit on his punches comes across to some as if he’s making excuses to try to explain away his poor performance against Gvozdyk. It would have been better if Benavidez would have shut up and admitted that he fought his first fight at 175. Bringing up injuries sounds weak.

It didn’t look like Benavidez was hurt, but you can understand why he mentioned his ailments. He was terrible in that fight, which should have been scored as a draw at 12 rounds.

The judges gave Benavidez the decision, but it looked 100% like he hadn’t done enough to win. So his mention of injuries is now permanently understandable. It’s called “damage control.”

False bravado

“David Morrell is a good fighter. The Cuban boxing school, they are technical fighters. The thing with me is that I have a lot of experience. I have been in the ring with many great champions, not only in fights but in sparring. I have the dog in me. I just have to get in there and turn it on,” Benvidez said.

As the “Mexican Monster” talks, he’ll try to outwork Morrell, hoping he can use his shots to either knock him out or win a grueling decision. Benavidez is tailor-made for Morrell with his emphasis on punching combinations, which will leave him wide open to the Cuban’s counter punches.

This is a risky way to fight Morrell because he’s not an old, small fighter like many of the guys Benavidez beat when he was campaigning at 168 against smaller guys.

Sick handspeed‼️ Who do you have on February 1st? https://t.co/jCHBTyF3Y3

— Leonard Ellerbe (@LEllerbe) January 3, 2025