Benavidez: “Morrell tried to hurt me with a belt!”

David Benavidez believes David Morrell was trying to hurt him to get out of their fight when he threw his regular WBA light heavyweight belt at him after he shoved him during their Dec. 17 showdown in Miami. Benavidez seems paranoid about the injury scenario he formulated.

Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) became angry when Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) refused to shake his hand. So, to deal with his embarrassment and anger, he showed it to Morrell, who retaliated by throwing his WBA belt at him. The belt almost nailed Benavidez in the head. He interpreted that move by Morrell as trying to escape the fight by injuring him.

You could look at it another way. Benavidez was the one who tried to get out of the fight by pushing Morrell, hoping he would hit him in the face in retaliation. It was Benavidez who started with the push. What did you expect Morrell to do?

Was Morrell scared?

“I really want to beat up Morrell, and that’s exactly what I intend to do,” David Benavidez told fightstill complaining that David Morrell didn’t want to shake his hand during his press session.

“For me, I already know that he is 100% afraid of me because he is already looking for ways out. Who throws belts in someone’s face? That’s a heavy belt, brother,” Benavidez said of Morrell throwing his WBA world title belt at him during their showdown after he was shoved hard without warning.

“For me, throwing that belt in your face, I know in my mind that I’m going to hit you and the fight is going to be called off because you’re going to get cut. That’s exactly what he did. He also aimed at my head. He didn’t try to fail,” Benavidez said.

There would have been no problem if Benavidez had controlled his violent instincts when Morrell refused to shake his hand. Do you go through life pushing everyone when they don’t want to shake your hand?

“From the first press conference when we did the confrontation, I felt the fear in him,” Benavidez said of Morrell. “I’ve been doing this for a long time and the same with this one. I told him, ‘Be careful what you ask for because I might be there to give it to you.’

“This makes for a better fight. I did all that. I pushed him. I did the press conference and now a lot more people are interested in this fight. They should be because this is going to be a good fight. David Morrell is a good fighter. I am a great fighter.

Will Morrell participate?

“We’re going to go to war, and if he’s really true to what he says, he’s going to stand there and go toe to toe with me. I don’t think I’m going to do it. I’m 100% ready to go in and do it. “I’m going to hurt that guy as much as I can,” Benavidez said.

It may not work in Benavidez’s favor to go toe-to-toe with a big hitter like Morrell because he hits much harder and will take advantage of all the shots he tends to throw.

Benavidez’s punching volume worked for him at 168 against the smaller, older and weaker fighters he had faced. But at 175, he’ll have to reinvent himself if he doesn’t want his career to implode, starting with the fight with Morrell.