Benavidez: “I Got Morrell Scared!”

David Benavidez is still convinced that he’s got David Morrell “scared” of him because of the hard shove that he gave him during their face-off at the media workout on December 17th to promote their February 1st fight.

‘The Mexican Monster’ uses fear to promote the fight, and he talks about it frequently in his interviews, saying he sees it in Morrell.

This focus on fear is pointless because it won’t stop Morrell from throwing punches on February 1st. You can tell from looking at Benavidez that he’s worried about this fight. There are millions at stake for him.

Benavidez’s Fear Projection

Morrell fought two-time Cuban gold medalist Julio Cesar La Cruz, and he did not look scared. That guy is a better fighter than Benavidez by a mile.

It seems to be important for him to have Morrell scared. If Benavidez believed in himself, he wouldn’t focus so much on seeing fear in the Cuban. The fact that he didn’t want to fight Morrell for two solid years is an indication that it was he who was living in fear.

“I got him scared. I definitely know he’s scared of me 100%. I’m going to beat the f*** out of him on February 1st,” said David Benavidez to Bet On Yourself YouTube channel, talking about David Morrell.

“If I was able to sit down on my punches, I would have got that guy out of there,” said Benavidez about his last opponent, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, who he beat last year on June 15th. “That’s a big part for why I made this fight happen [winning the WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight title from Morrell].

“Also, another part is I get to go in there and shut this guy up. I get to show the world what I’m about, and I get to put a beating on David Morrell in front of everybody. If you beat the best of the best, the money is going to come. What matters to me is the respect that you get from the people, and the money is going to come on it’s on,” said Benavidez.

The bit about Benavidez not being able to sit down on his punches is him discussing being injured during his fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15th in his debut at 175. He claimed after the fight that he’s fought with several injuries.

It didn’t look like Benavidez was injured, but one can understand why he would mention his ailments. He was terrible in that fight, which should have been scored as a 12-round draw.

The judges gave Benavidez the decision, but he looked 100% like he’d not done enough to win. So, his mention of injuries is now permanently understandable. It’s called ‘damage control.’

False Bravado

“David Morrell is a good fighter. The Cuban school of boxing, they’re technical fighters. The thing about me is I’ve got a lot of experience. I’ve been in the ring with a lot of great champions, not only in fights but in sparring. I’ve got the dog in me. I’ve just got to go in there and activate it,” said Benvidez.

From how the ‘Mexican Monster’ is talking, he will try to out-brawl Morrell, hoping he can walk through his shots to knock him out or win a grueling decision. Benavidez is tailor-made for Morrell with his emphasis on combination punching, which is going to leave him wide open for the Cuban’s counter-punches.

That’s a risky way to fight Morrell because he’s not an old, undersized fighter like many of the guys Benavidez beat when he was campaigning at 168 against smaller guys.