David Morrell addressed the PED talk for his opponent, David Benavidez, today, saying that fighters who lose to him make excuses.
Benavidez’s Escape Plan?
Morrell believes Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) is already building his PED excuse to use after he loses to him on February 1st. He can try and muddy the water to downplay his loss to Morrell by talking PEDs to escape the backlash that will come.
The unbeaten WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) recommended that Benavidez “train hard” and focus on that rather than building excuses ahead of time. Morrell vs. Benavidez will headline in 28 days on February 1st at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The fight will be shown live on PBC on Prime Video PPV.
It would be bad for Benavidez’s career for him to lose. He’s already talking about wanting to challenge the winner of the February 22nd rematch between undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
The payday Benavidez would get fighting the winner of that fight would be huge, possibly in the $10 million range. So it’s understandable why he’s keyed up for the Morrell fight, needing this win more than anything.
If Benavidez loses, it’s a long way back to where he is now. The boxing public likely won’t give him a pass if he starts pointing his finger of suspicion at Morrell, talking PEDs in the aftermath of a loss.
Morrell Predicts Excuses
“It’s simple. I don’t make excuses, and my team doesn’t make excuses, but fighters like that, they clearly do. They haven’t fought against anybody that’s at their level,” said David Morrell to Sean Zittel, reacting to David Benavidez and Sena Agbeko suspecting him of using PEDs.
“When they do face someone at their level, they start to say things like that. ‘Oh, the doping this’ or something else that’s beyond the pale. It’s a situation where if they lose, ‘Oh, it’s doping this and doping that.’ If they win, ‘Oh, I was just the better fighter.’
“So, I would just tell them to train as hard as you can, train strong because that’s all you’re going to be able to do against me. In the end, the better fighter is going to win,” said Morrell.
Benavidez also reportedly said he’ll move up to cruiserweight to challenge WBA and WBO champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez next if he can’t get the winner of the Beterbiev-Bivol 2 fight.
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