Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
David Benavidez appears to be making a preemptive excuse by saying that his opponent, ‘regular’ WBA light heavyweight champion David Morrell, has been negligent in wanting to be tested for drugs by VADA. The two will fight on February 1 at PBC on Prime Video PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
In an interview, Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) went further, talking about Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) and drug testing, mentioning two of his knockout victims, Sena Agbeko and Kalvin Henderson, to support your argument.
A “safety net”?
It seems to some that Benavidez, 28, is bringing up the issue to muddy the waters in case he loses to Morrell. If Benavidez is defeated, fans will not punish him or abandon ship because of the suspicions they would have about Morrell’s drug use. It would give the ‘Mexican Monster’ free rein to escape the backlash that he would normally receive when losing to the Cuban Morrell.
“In fact, Morrell filed his VADA paperwork 1 day BEFORE Benavidez in late November.. #Done,” said Keith Idec in unknown.
It’s pathetic that Benavidez repeatedly discussed his suspicions about Morrell ahead of time, as this tarnishes the match and detracts from its interest. But for Benavidez, it gives him a built-in excuse if something goes wrong and he gets knocked out or outpointed.
Benavidez’s reckless fighting style, charging every punch, will put him at risk of being knocked out by Morrell. He took a lot of hits in his last fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, fighting like that, and he was lucky that the Ukrainian fighter was pushing his punches instead of putting full power into them like he did.
In the second half of that fight, Gvozdyk repeatedly took advantage of Benavidez’s sloppy style to nail him with powerful punches. He hurt Benavidez in the twelfth round with a punch to his soft abdomen that completely immobilized him for the last 30 seconds of the fight. Benavidez did not throw anything after taking a right hand to the barn from Gvozdyk in that round.
Benavidez’s preventive excuse
“It’s not an excuse, but when you see other fighters saying, ‘Hey, VADA tested me, but David Morrell wasn’t tested,’ it raises a lot of questions,” David Benavidez told the mediaraising 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 have been two other fighters (former Morrell knockout victims Sena Agbeko and Kalvin Henderson). We are talking about Agbeko. He says they tested him throughout the camp. David Morrell wasn’t tested and after the fight he wasn’t drug tested at all, which was a little strange to me.
“I don’t really care about that. Even if he (Morrell) was on steroids, I’d beat him up, but if you’re a dirty fighter, you’ll be exposed. That’s why they are giving so much importance. They didn’t want to get tested, but dirty fighters will 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 go,” Benavidez said.
It’s very disappointing to see Benavidez constantly bring up drug testing, making it clear that he is planting an excuse in the fans’ minds 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 putting pressure on VADA, saying, ‘We have to do testing.’ We have to do the test.’ These are the high caliber fights that need to be put to the test. When I fought Caleb Plant and Demetrius Andrade, we were testing 14 weeks in advance. For this one, we only started testing nine weeks in advance.
“It’s not that I’ve been asking things I didn’t ask myself. VADA has tested me more than anyone else,” Benavidez said.
