A chunky-looking David Benavidez trash-talked David Morrell while posing a short video promo for their February 1st light heavyweight headliner at the Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
During the face-off, Benavidez, 27, intruded into the Cuban Morrell’s personal space, stepping toward him while speaking in rapid Spanish, trying to intimidate him.
Even when they were separated, one could see that Benavidez was upset, perhaps due to Morrell calling him a “Coward,” questioning his courage during the last two years due to him ducking a fight against him.
Morrell: “If you were in Cuba, they’d take your shoes.”
That might have been the comment that set Benavidez off or the one about him being a “coward.” Either one of those could have been that set his kettle on the boil, but Morrell has been annoyed about being swerved repeatedly by Benavidez for the last two years because they should have already fought.
If they had, the winner of the fight would have seen their popularity skyrocket, which have put pressure on Canelo Alvarez to fight them. Rather than fight Morrell, 26, Benavidez has opted to pad his record with wins over these fighters:
– Oleksandr Gvozdyk: 37
– Caleb Plant
– Demetrius Andrade: 35
– David Lemieux: 35
– Kyrone Davis
Do you see a trend here with the opposition Benavidez has been facing? Benavidez has been doing record padding, which signals that his dad, Jose Benavidez Sr, and his management have maneuvered him to create a fake record to try and get the Canelo payday. It didn’t work. All that wasted time and Canelo wasn’t fooled.
The fight against Morrell is Benavidez’s first 50-50 fight during his 11-year professional career, and it’s going to be interesting to see if he can pass this test without falling apart.
Benavidez (29-0, 24 KO) carried extra groceries around his midsection, and he’s going to have to lose the weight before taking on WBA ‘regular’ 175-lb champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) in their match on PBC on Prime Video PPV.
