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David Benavidez appears to be creating a preemptive excuse by saying that his opponent, WBA “regular” Light Heavyweight Champion David Morrell, has been lax in 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) talked about Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) and drug testing, bringing up two of his knockout victims, Sena Agbeko and Kalvin Henderson, to give support his argument.
A “safety net”?
It seems to some that the 28-year-old Benavidez is bringing this up to muddy the waters in case he loses to Morrell. If Benavidez takes a beating, the fans won’t turn on him and abandon ship because of the suspicions they’d have about Morrell doing drugs. He would give the ‘Mexican Monster’ a free pass to avoid the reaction he would normally receive when losing to the Cuban Morrell.
“Morrell filed his VADA paperwork 1 day before Benavidez in late November. #Fact,” said Keith Idec X.
It’s pathetic that Benavidez repeatedly discusses his suspicions about Morrell early, as it cuts into the match and detracts from his interest. But for Benavidez, it gives him a built-in excuse if something goes wrong and he gets knocked out or won on points.
Benavidez’s punch-heavy fighting style will put him at risk of being knocked out by Morrell. He got hit hard in his last fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, fighting like this, and he was lucky that the Ukrainian fighter was pushing his shots instead of putting the maximum power into them like he was.
In the second half of that fight, Gvozdyk repeatedly took advantage of Benavidez’s sloppy style to nail him with powerful shots. He hurt Benavidez in the 12th round with a soft punch to his midsection that completely shut him down for the last 30 seconds of the fight. Benavidez didn’t throw anything after taking a right hand from Gvozdyk in the barn in that round.
Benavidez’s preventive excuse
“It’s not an excuse, but when you go through other fighters who say, ‘Hey, I was VADA tested, but David Morrell wasn’t tested,’ it raises a lot of questions,” David Benavidez told the mediaraising his suspicions about David Morrell as a dirty fighter ahead of their February 1 fight.
“I’m not the only fighter who said that. There have been two other fighters (former Morrell knockout victims, Sena Agbeko and Kalvin Henderson). We’re talking about Agbeko. He says he was tested all camp. David Morrell he wasn’t tested and after the fight they didn’t do a drug test which I thought was odd.
“I don’t really care about that. Even if he (Morrell) was on steroids, he’d beat the crap out of him, but if you’re a dirty fighter, you’re going to be exposed. That’s why they’re making such a big deal about it. They didn’t want to get tested , but dirty fighters are going to be exposed in the game. It’s not good for the sport, and it’s not good for people to use steroids. So I’m not going to let that shit slide,” Benavidez said.
It is very disappointing to see Benavidez constantly bring up the drug tests, making it clear that he is planting an excuse in the minds of the fans ahead of his fight with Morrell. The Cuban believes this is a sign that Benavidez is “afraid” of him.
“They’re testing us because I keep pushing VADA, saying, ‘We have to test.’ We have to try. These are the high-caliber decks you need to try. When I fought Caleb Plant and I fought Demetrius Andrade, we were trying for 14 weeks. For this one, we barely started testing for nine weeks.
“It’s not like I’ve been asked things that I haven’t done myself. I’ve been tested more than anyone for VADA,” Benavidez said.
