David Benavidez believes that David Morrell was trying to injure him to get out of their fight when he threw his heavy WBA ‘regular’s light heavyweight belt at him after he shoved him during their face-off on December 17th in Miami. Benavidez seems paranoid about the injury scenario that he formulated.
Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) got angry when Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) refused to shake his hand. So, to deal with his embarrassment and anger, he showed Morrell, who retaliated by throwing his WBA belt at him. The belt just barely missed nailing Benavidez in the head. He interpreted that move by Morrell as him trying to weasel out of the fight by injuring him.
You could look at it the other way. Benavidez was the one trying to squirm out of the fight by shoving Morrell, hoping he’d punch him in the face in retaliation. It was Benavidez who started it with the shove. What did he expect Morrell to do?
Was Morrell Scared?
“I really want to beat the s*** out of Morrell, and that’s exactly what I intend on doing,” said David Benavidez to Fighthype, still complaining about David Morrell not wanting to shake his hand during their media workout.
“For me, I already know he’s 100% scared of me because he’s already looking for ways out. Who throws belts at somebody’s face? That’s a heavy-a** belt, bro,” said Benavidez about Morrell throwing his WBA world title belt at him during their face-off after he was shoved hard without warning.
“For me, throwing that belt at your face, I know in my mind that I’m going to hit you, and the fight is going to get canceled because you’re going to get cut. That’s exactly what he did. He aimed at my head, too. He didn’t try to miss,” said Benavidez.
There wouldn’t have been a problem if Benavidez had controlled his violent instincts when Morrell didn’t want to shake his hand. Is he going through life shoving everybody when they don’t want to shake hands?
“From the first press conference when we did the face-off, I sensed the fear in him,” said Benavidez about Morrell. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, and the same thing with this one. I said, ‘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 thing, 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’m a great fighter.
Will Morrell Engage?
“We’re going to go to war, and if he’s really about what he says, he’s going to stand there and go toe-to-toe with me. I don’t think he’s going to do it. I’m 100% ready to go in there and do it. I’m going to hurt that guy as much as I possibly can,” said Benavidez.
It might not work in Benavidez’s favor to stand to-toe-toe with a big puncher like Morrell because he hits a lot harder and will take advantage of all the shots that he tends to throw.
Benavidez’s volume punching worked for him at 168 against the smaller, older, weaker fighters that he’d been matched against. But at 175, he’s going to have to reinvent himself if he doesn’t want his career to implode, starting with the Morrell fight.
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