Jose Benavidez Sr. is still giving excuses for his son, David Benavidez’s lackluster performance in his last fight in his debut at 175 against Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15th last year.
(Credit: Ryan Hafey/Premier Boxing Champions)
Still Making Excuses
He’s still blaming it on Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) for having two injured hands and a recent cut, but he’s not showing a doctor’s note to verify the injuries. As former U.S. president Ronald Reagan once said, ‘Trust but verify.‘ We can’t trust if there’s no doctor’s note, and the only thing we’re left with is Benavidez getting pounded by Gvozdyk and fortunate enough to get the decision.
This Saturday, ‘the Mexican Monster’ Benavidez risks his guaranteed title shot against the winner of undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 in his clash against WBA ‘regular’ 175-lb champion David Morrell on February 1st at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
If Benavidez loses this fight, he can forget about fighting for the undisputed titles at 175. However, Jose Sr. has already given Benavidez’s escape plan by saying he’ll go up to cruiserweight to challenge WBA and WBO champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez for his two belts.
Obviously, that’ll go over really well with fans having Benavidez back into a world title shot at cruiserweight after losing to Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs), but I guess it’s safer. A second loss to Morrell would destroy what’s left of Benavidez’s career.
“He Didn’t Get Hit?!”
“David won easy that fight like Morrell got hit,” said Jose Benavidez Sr. to MillCity Boxing, denying that David Benavidez got hit in his last fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15th. Benavidez was hit often by Gvozdyk and hurt to the body in round twelve.
“The difference in this is David had two injured hands, and he had a cut two weeks before on his eye. This is the only difference, and David beat this guy with no problem [correction: Benavidez-Gvozdyk looked like a draw but judged bailed Benavidez out].
“He [Benavidez] didn’t get hit like Morrell get hit against this other fighter [Radivoje Kalajdzic]. I wanted to cancel that fight, but David [Benavidez] said, ‘No. I’m going to go to Laa Vegas, and I’m going to beat this guy [Gvozdyk] with two injured hands and a cut over my eye.'”
Benavidez Jr. sounds like he’s trying to hide the truth about David Benavidez’s fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk by saying he didn’t get hit.
The truth is, Benavidez got hit a lot in that contest, and was hurt to the body in the final round from a right hand that paralyzed his ability to throw in the final minute. Jose Sr. can try and deny it, but fans saw what happened, so they said Benavidez didn’t look good. No one believes the injury excuse that Jose Sr. and David are using to explain away the lackluster effort.
“He’s 100% Healed”
“That’s exactly what he did and that was a big thing for him because that made his mind stronger than ever. Right now, he’s 100% healed. He’s great. Everything is good. His mind is super strong, and he’s going to mess him [Morrell] up,” said Benavidez Sr.
Before the Gvozdyk fight, Benavidez said he was feeling great, but afterward, we heard the excuses. So, you can’t take Jose Sr. and ‘The Mexican Monster’ at their word because of last time.
“A lot of people are going off of that fight, but he beat him. He pretty much beat him in all of the rounds, and he didn’t get hit like Morrell got hit. It’s good that happened. We learned a lot from that fight, but this fight, you’re going to have mean explosive, exciting [matchup],” said Benavidez Sr.
