David Benavidez appears to be making a pre-emptive excuse by saying that his opponent, “regular” WBA light heavyweight champion David Morrell, has been lax about wanting a drug test by VADA. The two will fight on February 1st on PBC on Prime Video PPV at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

In an interview, Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) went on to talk about Morel (11-0, 9 KOs) and drug testing, mentioning two of his knockout victims, Sena Agbeko and Calvin Henderson, to support his argument.

“Safety net”?

It appears to some that Benavidez, 28, is muddying the waters should he lose to Morel. If Benavidez gets beaten, fans won’t take it too hard and abandon ship because of the suspicions they may have about Morell’s drug use. That would give the “Mexican Monster” a free pass to escape the backlash he usually receives from losing to Cuban Morel.

“Morell actually filed his VADA paperwork a day before Benavidez in late November. #Fact,” Keith Edick said X.

It’s pathetic that Benavidez repeatedly discussed his doubts about Morell early on, because it distorts the match and detracts from interest. But for Benavidez, it gives him a built-in excuse if something goes wrong and he is eliminated from the tournament or beaten on points.

Benavidez’s reckless fighting style, heavy on every punch, will put him at risk of a knockout at the hands of Morell. He was hurt a lot in his last fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, and fighting that way, he was lucky that the Ukrainian fighter was mostly pushing his shots instead of putting maximum power into them like he had been doing.

In the second half of that fight, Gvozdyk repeatedly took advantage of Benavidez’s sloppy style to pepper him with powerful shots. He hurt Benavidez in the 12th round with a punch to the soft midsection that completely shut him down for the final 30 seconds of the fight. Benavidez didn’t throw anything after he was hit by a right hand from Gvozdyk to the breadbasket in that round.

Benavidez’s protective alibi

“It’s not an excuse, but when you go through other fighters who say, ‘I was tested by VADA, but David Morell wasn’t,’ it raises a lot of questions,” David Benavidez told . Mediaraising his suspicions about David Morrell being a dirty fighter before their fight on February 1st.

“I’m not the only fighter who said this. There were two other fighters [former Morrell knockout victims Sena Agbeko and Kalvin Henderson]. We are talking about Agbeko. He says it was tested throughout the camp. David Morrell wasn’t tested, and after the fight, they didn’t do any drug testing, which was strange to me.

“I don’t really care about that. Even if it was [Morrell] He was on steroids, I was going to hit him hard, but if you’re a dirty fighter, you’re going to get exposed. That’s why they make such a big deal. They didn’t want to be tested, but dirty fighters would be exposed in the game. It’s not good for the sport, and it’s not good for people to use steroids. “So, I’m not going to let this go,” Benavidez said.

It’s disappointing to see Benavidez constantly mentioning drug testing, making it clear that he’s planting an excuse in fans’ minds ahead of his fight with Morel. The Cuban believes this is a sign that Benavidez is “afraid” of him.

“We are getting tested because I keep pushing VADA saying, ‘We have to get tested. We have to test. These are high-caliber battles that need to be tested. When I fought Caleb Plant, and I fought Demetrius Andrade, we were testing for 14 weeks. For this one, we’ve barely started testing after nine weeks.

“It’s not like I was asking for things I wouldn’t do myself. I’ve been tested by VADA more than anyone else,” Benavidez said.