Kalvan Henderson is another of David Morrell’s knockout victims to suspect something was up with their fight. He has come out of the woodwork to complain about his suspicions about him and suspects that something was fishy with the absence of drug tests for their fight in 2022.
Henderson (19-2-1, 13 KOs) was knocked out in the fourth round by Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) on June 4, 2022, at the Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He said there was no drug testing for the fight, and he felt something suspicious was going on. Although he has no proof and is guessing, he thinks something is going on.
Morrell looked thin in the fight and not like someone using PEDs, but Henderson is still suspicious. Another one of Morrell’s knockout victims, Sena Agbeko, has talked recently about his suspicions of him due to a lack of drug testing. Although he has no proof either, he’s still been talking.
Henderson thinks WBC interim light heavyweight champion David Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) will defeat WBA ‘regular’ champ Morrell in their fight on February 1st because he says he’s bigger than him and has better stamina. They’re the same size, but oh well.
“Superman” Morrell? Henderson Has Doubts
“I went to Morrell’s second home in Minnesota. Nobody else wanted to fight him. I had a great game plan. I felt the fight was stopped early. Was the guy [Morrell] winning the fight? Yeah, but we had a game plan for the deeper rounds,” said Kalvin Henderson to Fighthype, still bitter about his fourth-round technical knockout loss to David Morrell from two years ago on June 4, 2022.
“I’m catching him with body shots, and I’m hearing what those body shots are doing to him. I knew he was going to slow down eventually. That fight was supposed to be drug tested, and we both signed paperwork for it to be drug tested. We get to the fight in the locker room, and the WBA forgets to order the drug tests.
“So, that’s another thing. Not only are we fighting politics. We’re fighting a potentially dirty fighter in Morrell…After the fight, there was still no drug test. There’s something fishy. Superman only exists in comic books,” said Henderson when asked if there’s something ‘fishy’ about David Morrell.
There was nothing “Superman’ about Morrell scoring a fourth-round knockout of Kalvin Henderson. He backed him up against the ropes and nailed him with several hard punches; the referee saw that Henderson was taking some wicked shots and stopped them.
He would have gotten hurt if he allowed Morrell to continue to bludgeon Henderson. There was too much time left in the round for the referee to let the fight continue.
“These guys have a lot of money behind them, a lot of money in things out of their control. So, of course, they’re going to be put in the best position possible,” said Henderson. “This dude [Morrell] was bigger than me in the ring on fight night. Fighters know. Before the weigh-in, he was drinking Gatorade before he stepped on the scale. Something is fishy.”
It’s a big reach on Henderson’s part to conclude from Morrell drinking Gatorade at the weigh-in that he was using PEDs. That’s wacky guesswork on his part. He’s drinking Gatorade; therefore, he’s dirty. That makes no sense, but if you’re trying to understand why Morrell beat you, you got to find something rather than accept that you weren’t good enough.
Benavidez To Beat Morrell?
“I think Benavidez is going to beat Morrell on pure size and stamina. Benavidez throws hard punches for 15 rounds straight. So, I think his relentless pressure and nonstop [punches] is going to make a difference in this fight. I don’t think Benavidez’s power will carry over to 175,” said Henderson.
Kalvin is a little confused. Benavidez is not bigger than Morrell, and his stamina at 175 isn’t better than his at 168. We saw that in Benavidez’s last fight at 175 when he gassed out after six rounds against Oleksandr Gvozdyk. Morrell has a longer reach than Benavidez by four inches, punches harder, and has better hand speed and technical ability. You wouldn’t expect Henderson to know the details between Morrell and Benavidez because he’s a fighter and doesn’t analyze fights like writers do.
“At 168, he was huge. Some people called him a ‘weight bully,’ but at 175, it’s more of a natural weight class for him. So, I think you’ll see longer fights for Benavidez and Morrell, maybe, too, at that weight class because of bigger guys,” said Henderson.
Things are going to be much different for Benavidez at 175 compared to his weight bully days at 168, where he routinely enjoyed a massive size advantage over his mix of old, weak, and badly flawed opposition that his promoters had set him up against for 28 of his first 29 fights of his career.
You can’t blame ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez for choosing to stay at 168 for so long because it’s allowed him to carve out a career that otherwise wouldn’t be there if he’d fought where he should have been at 175 since turning pro in 2013.
If Benavidez had fought at light heavyweight, he would likely have been beaten many times by now. He would be just one of the pack, along with other contenders like Joshua Buatsi, Willy Hutchinson, and Oleksandr Gvozdyk.
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