David Benavidez continues to use the steroid debate as a selling point for his fight against “regular” WBA lightweight champion David Morrell on February 1st.
It’s an odd way to promote the fight and get fans interested, but Benavidez doesn’t seem to have much to say during his interviews. Also, it is they keep making excuses for his abysmal performance in his debut at 175 against Oleksandr Gvozdyk last June. It sounds so weak.
PPV Title Match
Next month, Benavidez will have his WBC 175-lb interim title on the line against Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) in his PBC Prime Video PPV headliner at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“You have never heard my name associated with steroids. You’ve heard David Morrell’s name associated with steroids,” David Benavidez told Xicana Boxing about David Morrell, speaking of his unfounded suspicions that he was dirty before their February 1 fight.
“The guy he fought said they tested him, but they didn’t test David Morrell, even after the fight there’s no drug test. This is strange because there are always drug tests right after the fight. I want to tell people, if I had something to hide, why would I ask for more drug tests?
“We had nothing to hide and that is why we are trying to ask for clean boxing. We test as much as possible to make sure there is no funny business.
“I’m definitely going to punish him,” Benavidez said of Morrell. “As for when it will end, I’m not thinking about it. I think I’ll go in and play my game. The difference between my last fight (Oleksandr Gvozdyk) and his (Radivoje Kalajdzic) fight. I went in there with two injured hands.
Excuses or Reality?
“I had a torn tendon here, I had a fractured knuckle and I had a cut when I had 10 stitches three weeks before the race. So I was already going through a lot of adversity. The fighter I faced was a lot better than the fighter he faced,” Benavidez said.
“I think because of that, it shows that I’m a different caliber of fighter. Many people, if they had injured one hand, would have called off the race. I had two injured hands. I didn’t cancel the fight because it was a big deal.
“Me and Tank wrestled on the same card at the PPV. So imagine if I had pulled out of the fight, I would have disappointed my fans. I care about my fans more than anything,” Benavidez said.
What “The Mexican Monster” doesn’t say is that he looked worse against Gvozdyk than Morrell did in his one-sided win over Kalajdzic. Morrell repeatedly hurt his opponent in this fight to the head and his body got stronger as the fight went on. In contrast, Benavidez never hurt Gvozdyk and tired after six rounds. He took a hit down the stretch.
There was no sign that Benavidez was injured in his last fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15. He was punching full force with both hands and didn’t look injured. Where Benavidez looked bad was how he tired in the second half, took several hard shots from the 37-year-old Gvozdyk and hurt himself to the body.
The fatigue has nothing to do with injured hands and everything to do with Benavidez not carrying the extra weight well.
Benavidez has excused his poor performance in his 175 debut against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, blaming injured hands and a recent cut. He would have been better off just letting his performance speak for itself rather than making excuses afterwards.
